Children Of The Sun: Summon My Tribe
by Dragon Scar
Summary: FINISHED Mom said the world couldn't be saved by teenagers alone... How about some smartalack kids who don't know when to quit.
1. Chapter 1: We are something more then m...

Disclamer: I don't own Daughters of the Moon or anything like that I don't even own a car. I really want a car. Email me if you want to give to the Lets get Dragon Scar a Car. I hardly own the laptop I work on.  
  
Children of the Sun  
  
By  
  
Dragon Scar  
  
Chapter 1: We Are Something More Then Meets the Eye  
  
_ The Goddess Selene gave her daughters to protect the Earth from unspeakable evil. But now in a day of darker sprits, Helios has given his three sons and his little girl, his reason to smile, to aid his Selene's daughters. Helios gave each of them powers to aid them in defeeting the Atrox in the night. Selene and Helios could only watch as their children walked together into the time streem so that they may be reborn as many times as needed. Last to enter the stream was Helio's daughter. She turned back to Helios and told him him, "My brothers and I are strong. We will win. For you, father."_  
  
History class always was boarding and it always will be boarding. No matter if you learned it in the 1980s or now. The past is annoying to learn about. Zaltana could never figure out why History is so damn important. She sits in class staring out the window. She enjoyed watching the rainfall down hitting the window of the classroom. She wore baggie black pants and a blue green top that was tight to her body. She wore a dark brown leather boomer jacket, which had been her grandfathers during World War II. Around her neck hung a Sun Amulet. In the face of the sun you could make out the out line of a moon.  
  
Her friend Cyrus threw a paper at her to get her to start paying attention. The two sat near the back of the classroom and could get away with almost anything. Cyrus shared the same Amulet that Zaltana wore. Little did they know that in a few days the two of them would find out more about each other then they ever wanted to know. They have known each other since they were kids on a little league Soccer team. In their part of town if you weren't on the Recreational Soccer team you weren't part of the town. They met on the field kind of like Catty and Vanessa did. Only not as peaceful.  
  
Cyrus was going to try to score when the sun reflecting off Zaltana Sun Amulet caught his eye. He kept running to the goal but he didn't realizes that she was about to steal the ball from him, making him trip and sit out the rest of the game cause she hurt his ankle a bit. After the game she went up to him and talked to him. They've been best friends ever since. Don't you love how when you're six years old you don't hold grudges? Innocents is always fun.  
Zaltana turned to Cyrus and mouthed "what?"  
  
"You were staring off into space again. That's the fifth time this class, what's going on?" He whispered letting some of his shoulder length sun blonde hair fall into his face.  
  
"Don't know can't concentrate. I'll copy your notes later so I have them all Kay?"  
  
"Sure. Like always." He said. "Nothing changes here does it?" After he whispered that there was a knock on the door and then it opened. Mr. Martes, the vice principal walked in with a new student.  
  
"Mr. Fallen, this is Rowen Stevens he just transferred here from South Brunswick High School in New Jersey."  
  
"Welcome to L.A. you can sit behind Zaltana and next to Cyrus." He pointed to the back of the room. Rowen walked back there slowly stopping beside Zaltana. He nodded to her before he took his seat behind her.  
  
Before The Vice Principal left he turned to Zaltana. "Ms. Phoenix, you know the rule, no jackets in class."  
  
"I know it but its damn cold in here. If you would turn up the heat in the building I wouldn't have to wear my jacket." Zaltana shot back. She didn't like the vice principal, and he didn't like her. It might have to do with the fact that she ran right into him once. Mr. Martes turned and walked off closing the door behind him. Zaltana turned to Rowen. "Welcome to hell, the only thing good in this place is the soda pop machines, even then they only have diet."  
  
"Did I just hear a girl complaining about diet soda?" Rowen said in disbelief.  
  
"Get used to it. Zal hates diet pop. I think it has to do with the whole 'Diets are for those who are too lazy to get off their ass and go play sports' frame of mind." Cyrus said. "By the way, I'm Cyrus."  
  
"And I'm Zaltana, but most people call me Zal."  
  
"Is it a requirement to have not so normal names in this neck of the woods?" Rowen said.  
  
"Na, they're like three mikes two Tim's and four Kristen's in this class alone. I think the three of us have the coolest names." Cyrus told him.  
  
Rowen reached into his shirt and pulled out a sun amulet. "I guess guys can get away with wearing these here." He let it rest on his black concert shirt with the saying 'the apocalypse is coming and it starts with you' on it.  
  
"Where did you get that?" Zaltana asked.  
  
"Oh the shirt? I got it at battle of Bands last year. They were a really great band."  
  
"Don't play dumb, where did you get the sun amulet?"


	2. Chapter 2: Meet Me At Sun Down

Chapter 2: Meet Me At Sun Down  
  
Rowen looked down at his sun amulet. "This old thing? I've had it forever. You just don't find these things everyday." The bell rang telling them to move on to their next class. "Met me at Planet Bang tonight and I'll talk to you about it."  
  
"But its Thursday, we can't get into Planet Bang tonight." Cyrus said getting his stuff together.  
  
"I didn't say in Planet Bang. Meet me outside on the street corner. Be there at Sun Set. It was nice meeting you Zaltana." He took her hand and lightly kissed it and walked out of the classroom.  
  
"Cy, you going?" Zaltana said throwing her backpack over her shoulder.  
  
"But of course, you?"  
  
"Come on think of how much dangers there is." She paused for a second. "Yes I am."  
  
Cyrus let out a light laugh before lifting his backpack. "Come on, you're going to be late for Spanish again."  
  
"But it's a stupid class." She said while walking out of the room with Cyrus. The two of them were close but when they tried to go out, they actually tried to avoid each other.   
  
"I told you to take Latin but did you listen, no you had to go try Spanish to curse at me."  
  
"Not true… it was to curse at my sister you were just an added bonus." She said stopping at her locker and started to dig through the disaster area she called her locker for her Spanish book. "Ah here it is."  
  
"I'll see you later. I gotta go to English." She watched Cyrus walk off as she closed her locker and went off to her next class.  
  
Cyrus and Zaltana arrived at Planet Bang about fifteen minuets before sunset. Zaltana changed from her normal school outfit to a pair of cut off jeans and a black tang top, her boomer jacket hung open with her hands berried in the pockets. Cyrus just wore the same out fit from school.  
  
"Why did you change?" Cyrus asked looking her over.  
  
"It's a girl thing." Zaltana said to him. "Why did we have to meet at sunset? Why not sunrise?"  
  
"Zal, not everyone wakes up at the crack of dawn like we do. He might be normal." Cyrus said putting his hand on her shoulder. "You sure you want to go through with this?"  
  
"Cy, he has our amulet. I want to know why. Do you think he has some sort of power too?" Zaltana asked. "It didn't glow when he was near. He can't be that bad can he?"  
  
"Zal, we shouldn't take a chance with him. He might have a power, he might not. We have to stay together here like we always have." He slid his hand under her face. "Now ease up. It should go well." Zaltana let a small smile creep onto her face. "That's the smile."  
  
"Where is he? Rowen should be here by now." She said pulling away from crimson contacted eyes.  
  
"That was a touching scene I have to say." Rowens voice came from behind them. They turned to see him with another boy and an old man. "I told you they would come." He said to the older man. Zaltana's eyes studied the older man. He appeared to be in his late 60's early 70's. He had short gray hair and saggy skin.   
  
"Rowen told me about you two. Not as I expected. I am Kedem. This young man to my right is Duncan. I believe all of you are sixteen am I right." Zaltana looked Duncan over. He was somewhat tall and lanky. His shifty Ice blue eyes were an alert that something is a foot.  
  
"Yeah you are." Cyrus stepped in fount of Zaltana. "What can you tell us about our Amulets?"  
  
"You two must be hungry. Come to the café and I'll explain everything." He said.  
  
They Sat at the Café waiting for Rowen to arrive back at the table with their orders. Duncan had sat down next to Zaltana who was seated with Cyrus as her right hand man. Kedem was across form Zaltana with a slight smile on his face. "So why do we have these sun Amulets? And why is mine silver while the guys have a golden one?" Zaltana said breaking the silence. Rowen arrived with the coffee and handed the first cup to Zaltana who started putting a lot of sugar packets in it.  
  
"My dear, Zaltana, you always were curious." He smirked. "You are the Daughter of Helios. That is why you're amulet is silver. He felt that because you are a girl you should have something special. The boys are the Sons of Helios. Together you are the Children of the Sun.   
  
"Isn't Helios that Greek guy with the sun cart?" Cyrus asked.  
  
"Well stated Cy," Zaltana said. "If I remember, Helios was the sun God. He drove his Chariot across the sky with Flaming horses and a golden Chariot … but that's just the old myth."  
  
"You really think it's just a myth?" Rowen almost screamed but instead he hushed his voice.  
  
"I thought it was based off some guy who made people believe he controlled the sun and moon in order to get free food and offerings."  
  
"This girl is naive" Rowen complained.  
  
"Creative story." Duncan said.  
  
"Thanks." Zaltana responded. She watched Duncan tip his cup to her.  
  
"That's not a good thing when he speaks like that. Normally you don't even get that out of him." Rowen explained. "Those Myths are real. Those Gods are real. They were killed by western religion."   
  
"Calm down children." Kedem said. "Just because you people are taught by your God Almighty how to think inside the box and not question stuff doesn't mean that it was just a myth. Even myths are based off the truth."   
  
"Kedem's not really a big fan of religion." Rowen told Cyrus.  
  
"I may be old but I can still hear." Kedem grumbled. "Anyway, you guys just lost a girl to hit on."  
  
"Why?" Cyrus asked.  
  
"Do you really want to hit on your sister?"  
  
"Zaltana? Who would have seen that one coming?" Cyrus explained. "Anyway, who would want to date her? She's could kick half the guys asses."  
  
"Your not getting help getting a prom date from my Cy." Zaltana said playfully hitting him in the stomach.  
  
"See what I mean she abuses me."   
  
"Suck it up." Duncan said in a deep monotone voice.  
  
"This is big, Duncan's talking." Rowen joked.  
  
"Fuck you."  
  
"Boys what did I say about cursing in fount of me?" Kedem tried to brake up the fight.  
  
"Don't do it less it's really good cursing." Rowen said.  
  
"This place is messed up." Cyrus confusedly stated.  
  
"I agree, maybe we should get outta here before we get into something too big." Zaltana said to Cyrus.  
  
"Your already in it. You've been in it since you were born." Kedem explained.  
  
"You know what, I don't have time for this," Zaltana was getting annoyed. "I've got to get home. You know what?" She took off her sun amulet. "You can have this back old man." She set it on the table and walked off.  
  
"I'll go after her." Duncan grabbed the Sun Amulet and went after her.  
  
"Wait Duncan," Cyrus said. "I know her, give me her Amulet and I'll get it back to her. She's just getting over some stuff and its well, kind of crazy in her life now." Duncan gave Cyrus a cold stair.  
  
"You don't even know how to fight them. Right now she's at her weakest. Without her amulet on they can steal her power, her hope and dreams."  
  
"Come on, I know where she's going." Cyrus ran out of the café and chased after Zaltana. Duncan was following closely. 


	3. Chapter 3: Don’t lose it

Chapter 3: Don't lose it  
  
Zaltana took a different bus to the local park. She sat under a tree near the man made lake out looking the water. 'I can't believe I just stormed off like that. It's not like me.' She heard her pager going off in her bag. She had to dig through a mess of notes, pens, and the make up she never wears and other random things to find her beeper. 'Ok, its Cy. Might as well call him back.' It took her a while to find her cell phone, which had ten messages from Cyrus on it. "I got to stop turning this thing off." She mumbled.   
  
"Hey can I sit here?" A voice said from behind her.   
  
"Sure." She looked up to see a really cute guy standing there. He sat down next to her.   
  
"It sure is nice out here."  
  
"Yeah." She looked out over the calmness of the water.  
  
The guy turned to her. "What's a cute girl like you doing sitting out here after dark all alone? Aren't you afraid of the drug lords and homeless?" He asked her.  
  
She couldn't shake a bad feeling about this guy. "No fear. Any way, I'm waiting for some friends to show up." She lied. She didn't want them to show up. Zaltana just wanted to be alone.  
  
"You know it's not too safe for a girl like you to be out here all alone. Are you alright?" The mysterious man asked.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Who are you? Why do you give a crap how I am? Most people in LA don't even go out at night to the parks." Zaltana said as she slowly stood up.  
  
"I'm Stanton, Don't be alarmed." Zaltana started to back up towards the lake. "Its not like you can run that way, there's a lake behind you." He said that has her foot hit the water. She felt the cold lake water flow into her sandal. She drew it back to solid ground.  
  
"Zaltana!!!!" She heard Duncan's voice but could only see trees and the Lake.   
  
"Are you going to call to your friend or let him wonder?" Stanton Asked.  
  
"I'm over here by the Lake. Under the Great Oak Tree."  
  
"He's not coming for you." He offered his hand. "Come with me, I'll bring you to where you'll be safe."   
  
"I don't want to go with you." She said taking another step back. She was now standing on the water. "I have to go." She started to run on top of the water. Cyrus and Duncan arrived at this time to see Zaltana running on water.   
  
"Has she ever done that before?" Duncan asked Cyrus.  
  
"Not to my knowledge." Cyrus watched as his best friend walked on water. "Am I going crazy?"  
  
"Is Zaltana some sort of New God that we all have to pray too?" Duncan asked watching her body run across the water.  
  
"I hope not."  
  
"We didn't see that."  
  
"Deal." The two turned to face Stanton again but he was gone. "We have to find Zal, she needs her amulet back."  
  
"Right, why don't we meet her at her house? I assume you know where that is right?"   
  
"What kind of best friend, ex boyfriend do you take me for? Of course I know where she lives. Follow me."   
  
On the other side of the lake Zaltana collapsed under a tree. She was out of breath and out of energy. When ever she made things levitate, she would always be out of energy, but making herself run across a lake, with only leaving slight ripples. She leaned her head back agents the tree. Her eyes closed and rolled back into her head. "Now you can't go passing out on me child." A gentle voice said over her.  
  
"Who are you?" Zaltana asked. Her eyes opened slightly to see a woman with gray hair standing over her.   
  
"Here drink this. I'm Maggie." She handed Zaltana a thermos with an herbal tea in it. Zaltana looked at it wearily. "Your not going to feel better less you drink it."  
  
"Maybe if I'm lucky it'll be poison." She mumbled taking a drink of it. She felt the tea calm her down and make her feel better. "Can you call up Cyrus on my cell and ask him to get me?"  
  
"Child, you really need to trust your friends more." She said to Zaltana.  
  
"I trust Cyrus with my life."  
  
"Now you need to trust Duncan and Rowen with it as do they need to trust you with their lives." Maggie told her.  
  
"I don't know if I can be trusted with their lives." Zaltana told the truth.  
  
"What don't you have any fate in yourself?"  
  
"Yeah I do, but I don't know if I can be trusted with it. I freaked out a few minuets ago when danger came knocking. I didn't answer it like I normally would, I turned and went out the back door." Zaltana started to dig through her bag to find her cell phone.  
  
"Your afraid aren't you?" Maggie asked.  
  
"I'm past being afraid."   
  
"Really?" Maggie questioned.  
  
"I'm petrified." 


	4. Chapter 4: In These Walls That Bind Us

Chapter 4: In these walls that bind us  
  
Maggie stayed with Zaltana until her friends arrived. Zaltana was expecting just to see Duncan and Cyrus but Rowen and Kedem were there too. Cyrus saw her sitting by the tree and ran to her side. "Are you ok?" he asked her  
  
"I'll be fine. Just a bit drained from the whole running on water thing." Zaltana cracked a smile at how stupid that sounded.  
  
"Did you two see her run on water?" Kedem asked Duncan and Cyrus. The two of them nodded. "Why didn't you tell me that she could walk on water?"  
  
"Because that was the first time I've ever done that. It's such a drain whenever I use my powers for long periods of time or at such high power excursion. I didn't know what to do when he asked me to come with him." Kedem cut off Zaltana's thought.  
  
"Who asked you to come with him?" Kedem asked.  
  
"I think he said his name was Stanton." Zaltana watched as Kedem and Maggie exchanged glances.  
  
"Why do you think he wants her?" Kedem thought aloud.  
  
"Maybe she's your weakest?" Maggie replied.  
  
"Or maybe because she has always followed her heart?" Cyrus interrupted them. "I don't know why they want her. But I, for one, don't really like the fact that I have an old lady calling my best friend the weakest. Just because she freaked out doesn't make her weak. She alone scares the football team. Why don't you two stop whatever fighting you are doing and tell us what is going on? What are the Amulets used for? Why do we have the powers we have and what are the Followers?"  
  
"I want to know one thing, why did Stanton want to take me to a 'safe place?'" Zaltana asked as Duncan sat down next to her.  
  
"To tell you the truth, I don't know why he wants you. From now on, I want you to be with one of the boys at all times." Kedem told her. "I want you also to keep your amulet on." She felt it being set over her head. She saw Duncan closing the claps from next to her.  
  
"Normally at this point I would have stormed off at this point for making one of those boys watch over me. I just don't have the energy too. I can tell you this Kedem, they can't watch me at all times."  
  
"Duncan why don't you bring her home?" Duncan stood and offered his hand to her.  
  
"I could carry you if you want?" He whispered. She shook her head no.  
  
"I want to know the whole damn truth." Zaltana looked up into Kedem's eyes. He saw that there was literally a fire in her eyes.  
  
"Right now is not a good time or place." Kedem told them. " Rowen tomorrow after school I want you to bring them over to my apartment." Rowen nodded. " Maggie can you call your girls and ask them over too?"  
  
"So were going to kill 2 birds with one stone?" Maggie joked.  
  
"Or a few pots of tea."  
  
"Are they some sort of couple?" Cyrus asked Rowen.  
  
"Ewe old people sex." he muttered. It took him a second to recover from the evil mental image. "They normally hate each other."  
  
"Should we be afraid?" Cyrus asked.  
  
"Fuck yeah." Rowen exclaimed.  
  
"Helios help me, I'm fighting the big nasty people with Jay and Silent Bob." Zaltana Sarcastically stated.  
  
"I think they're going to be alright." Maggie watched as four 16 year-olds joked around.  
  
"Were your girls this rocky at the beginning?" Kedem put his arm around Maggie's shoulder.  
  
"Not a chance." She pulled away and started to walk off only to stop and turn to say. "See you tomorrow." At that she left into the night. The eerie silence of the night was quickly destroyed by Zaltana's cell phone ringing. Kedem heard Zaltana answer it.  
  
"Hi Mom. I'm out with Cyrus, Duncan and Rowen. Guys from school. I'm not in a gang or doing Drugs. Okay, I'll bring them with me. I'm not dating them. MOM!!!. Okay I'll be there in a bit." She hung up her cell phone and looked at the guys. "I have to feed the twins, you guys want dinner?" She watched Duncan give her a glare. "There my half siblings."  
  
~.~  
  
They walked into Zaltana's apartment to be greeted by a three-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl. "Hey Mickey where's mom?"  
  
"In the kitchen. I think she's trying to cook." The little boy laughed.  
  
The little girl starred up at Duncan. He knelt down to look straight into her eyes. "I'm Duncan, what's your name?" He said to her.  
  
"Helia." 


	5. Chapter 5: Jeepers Creepers How’d You Ge...

Chapter 5: Jeepers Creepers How'd You Get Your Powers?  
  
Duncan smiled at Helia. "That's a pretty name for such a pretty girl."  
  
"Thank you." Her quite voice said.  
  
"Would you like a piggy back ride into the kitchen?" Helia nodded. Duncan lifted her onto his shoulders. He walked with her on his shoulders as if she didn't weigh a thing. He ducked to walk through the kitchen door to be sure that Helia didn't hit her head. Zaltana and Mickey lead the way into the kitchen. Duncan set Helia off on a chair in the kitchen while he watched Zaltana go up to her mother and talk to her.  
  
"Hey Mom, I'll take over in here. You can go get ready for your date." Zaltana said grabbing some spices off the spice rack.  
  
"I'm going to study group tonight, not on a date." Zaltana's mom replied.  
  
"What ever." She paused. "Mom I would like you to meet Duncan and Rowen. They're going to eat dinner with the twins and me. Kay?"  
  
"Its nice to meet you two."  
  
"The pleasure is ours." Duncan smiled. For someone who looked creepy, he sure did have a nice smile.  
  
"Zal, if you go out with one of them, go out with the dark one." Her mother laughed.  
  
"MOM, I'm not going out with Duncan!" Zaltana laughed. "Oh, after dinner if the twins are good can we take them out for ice cream?"  
  
"Sure, don't spoil their appetites though." Her mom said walking up stairs.  
  
"Helia, Mickey you guys want to go out for ice cream after dinner?" Zaltana asked them. The to twins started jumping for joy. "Run along and pick up the play room. If it looks any better we'll take you out for ice cream." The twins gave Zaltana a hug before running off to clean their playroom.  
  
"They don't really look like you." Rowen said. "They have blonde hair while yours is pretty damn dark."  
  
"Their my half siblings. My dad left right after we found out I could move stuff with my mind." Zaltana explained.  
  
"How did you find that out? You've never told me that." Cyrus asked.  
  
"My dad and I were watching Star Wars and after it I tried using the force. And I moved the remote off the table and dropped it into the popcorn. It made a mess and I had to clean it up." Zaltana laughed at how silly that had to sound  
  
"So you figured it out by thinking you had the force?" Rowen questioned.  
  
"Yeah." She checked what was in the oven. "It was kind of funny."  
  
"So do you even remember what your dad was like?"  
  
"Not really." She opened a draw and pulled out an old ripped up picture of a three year old girl with dark hair being held by a man with a small bit of facial hair. The mans hair was tied back into a braid which was thrown over his shoulder carelessly. "Here's a picture of him."  
  
"He looks kind of like someone I've seen before." Rowen studied the mans face. "Did he have an amulet like ours?"  
  
She thought for a second. "I don't really remember. I only have a few memories of him." She pulled a Chicken out of the oven and checked to see if it was done. "This looks almost done a few more minuets." She slid the chicken back in the oven.  
  
"What are some things you remember about your father?" Rowen asked.  
  
"It was the eighth night of Chanukah he gave me my grandmothers locket. I had been trying to figure out how to get it from him for weeks. Then on the final night he knelt down in front of me with a little purple fuzzy box. He told me that it's been in the family since the mid 1870's. He also told me when I was sad to keep it close to me and I'll feel better." Zaltana explained.  
  
"He sounded like a great guy."  
  
"He was." Zaltana's mom came down at this point.  
  
"Zal, don't let the twins have too much sugar tonight. They need to get to bed tonight. They can't stay out late like you do. Their still little kids."  
  
"I know Mom. Go on get to your study group or your going to be late again." She pushed her mom out the door. "I'll see you later." Closing the door behind her mother she leaned back on to the wall.  
  
"You okay Zal?" Cyrus asked.  
  
"Yeah my mom just gets to me some times. She keeps going out and sluting her self-out. Its just kind of weird." Zaltana closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "So how did you guys get your powers?"  
  
"I guess it was when I was seven, I just got really pissed at someone for something. The next thing I knew there was this wall of fire around me. My clothing burned off and I was in the buff. I freaked out and the fire department ruled the school burnt down cause of something with the kitchen. Like a grease fire or something." Duncan explained. "No force for me." The group laughed at the shear fact he did whatever kid wanted to do at one point in time, burn down the school.  
  
"Nothing too flashy for me. I was just playing with fire when I was able to make it turn into a fireball. Then it freaked me out and I closed my fists and the candle went out. I can control the fire." Rowen explained.  
  
"You guys get cool powers." Cyrus said. "I'm just a light bulb." Duncan and Rowen looked confused. They were trying to figure out what Cyrus meant by 'light bulb.' "I can make this light that's almost blinding and it tends to be really warm. But if you touch me I'll burn your hand off."  
  
"This is a great team, we've got a walking fire hazard, someone who plays with fire, a light bulb and some new age god. Oh yeah, we're kicking major ass." Rowen joked.  
  
"Rowen that's cold. Don't make me hit the lights." Cyrus joked with a finger on the light switch and the other hand starting to glow.  
  
"Not with the kids up stairs." Zaltana said. "You two want to fight? Take it out side." She used her power to open the door. "But make it quick, dinners ready."  
  
"We'll finish this later." Rowen said to Cyrus.  
  
"Cyrus, can you go get the kids they should be in the play room." Cyrus quickly glared at Rowen then nodded and walked up stairs. "Rowen, go get some ice out of the freezer, and Duncan go light the candles on the table." Zaltana said as she took care of the main parts of the dinner. Having levitation powers can come in handy. Dinner went pretty smooth. Just as promised Zaltana took Helia and Mickey out for ice cream after dinner. 


	6. Chapter 6: The Time Is Now

Chapter 6: The Time is Now  
  
Just as promised Zaltana took Helia and Mickey out for ice cream. The boys came along too. Nothing happened while they went out. No Followers talked to them or anything. It was almost as if they were just a bunch of friends with out any worries. At the end of Zaltana and Cyrus's street corner they split their own ways home. Cyrus watched Zaltana walk her siblings down the street. When they were about half way home he started down the side street, which he lived off of. Duncan and Rowen walked off in the same direction. Helia and Mickey laughed and ran around Zaltana playing this weird form of tag. Zaltana's eyes were scanning the shadows and her ears were listening for any sounds. She quickened her pace so she could get the kids inside. She didn't want them out side with Followers creeping around. They reached their house to find the door unlocked. Zaltana told Helia and Mickey to quite down for a few minuets. After walking around the den turning on all the lights, Zaltana told the twins to stay in this room and not to make a sound unless someone besides their mother and herself walked into the room. Other wise they would have to scream their heads off.  
  
After they agreed Zaltana walked over to the closet and found her brothers baseball bat. 'Walk softly and carry a big stick' she thought as she crept over to the kitchen door. The light was already on in there but that could have been because Zaltana forgot to turn off the light in there again. But then she heard someone's footsteps walking around in there. She opened the door a crack to peer into the kitchen. She expected to see a buff guy all dressed in black with a sky mask creeping around trying not to make a sound. But instead she saw a man who was skinny but had some muscle on him, shaggy dark brown hair that was cut pretty badly. Almost as if he had to cut it on the run. He was pacing around her kitchen as if he was planning something or waiting for someone. She walked over to the staircase and headed up stairs so she could sneak into the kitchen from the other entrance.   
  
Before she could pass mothers room her heart started to race. She went and grabbed the locket out of her mother's jewelry box. She had kept it there so she didn't lose it. After putting it on she went back down stairs. She hid behind the wall so she could look into the kitchen easier without being seen.   
  
"Come on where is that girl? I need to see her one last time." She heard the man say. Her hands gripped the bat tight as she showed herself to him.  
  
"Who the fuck are you, and what the hell are you doing in my kitchen?" Zaltana raised the bat to swinging position.   
  
"I'm looking for Zaltana Rose Phoenix. I need to talk to her." Zaltana made the phone come over to her.  
  
"You have five seconds to tell me who you are and why you want to talk to me before I call the cops." A smile crept across the mans face. "What are you smiling at?"   
  
"My baby's still a Jedi knight. It makes a father proud." The man said. She started to lower her bat.  
  
"Daddy?" before she knew it she was around him hugging him.  
  
"Zal, you've gotten so big. Your beautiful." Zaltana smiled looking up into her father's ash eyes.  
  
"Come on into the Den, you should meet the twins." She took his hand and started to lead him into the Den. "Wait, why did you come back after all these years? Why now."  
  
"Why now? Because evils getting ready to make another move. And its time you learn the truth about what's going to happen to you." He said. Zaltana stopped him from talking.   
  
"Help me put the twins to bed then tell me. I don't want them to hear something that could hurt them." Her eyes grew dark when she realized that this would be the last time she ever saw her father. He nodded and followed Zaltana into the den. The wide-eyed twins looked at Zaltana ready to scream. "Its alright guys, he's family."  
  
"Who is he?" Mickey asked hopping off the couch where his sister still sat.  
  
"Mickey, Helia, I'd like you to meet my dad." Helia looked at him and rubbed her sleepy eyes.   
  
"Its nice to meet you." Her tired quiet voice said looking up at him.  
  
"Come on you two its past your bed time." Zaltana said walking over to her little sister. Zaltana lifted Helia up and carried her to the stairs. "Come on Mickey, its your bed time too."  
  
"But Zal, I'm not tired." Mickey whined.  
  
"You have kindergarten tomorrow, you need your rest. Now come along." Mickey followed his sisters and Zaltana's father followed Mickey up stairs. After putting the twins to bed Zaltana lead her father back down stairs.  
  
"Zaltana, have you met Kedem yet?" He asked.   
  
"I met him today, what does that have to do with anything?" She questioned.  
  
"Did he tell you that you have till your 18 to keep your powers and you have to make a choice?" The two were sitting on the black leather couch in the front den. The door opened all of a sudden. Zaltana turned to see her mother walking in.  
  
"Mom? What are you doing home so early?" Zaltana asked standing up.  
  
"Zaltana, who is that one the couch with you? What did I tell you about bringing strange men home with you?"  
  
"Mandy? Is that you? You look great! Same girl I married." He said looking at his wife that he left all those years ago.  
  
"Luke?" She dropped her bag at the door and walked over to Luke. "Is that you?"  
  
"Yeah, its me. You've raised one beautiful daughter. Sorry I couldn't help out. Have you been getting the checks?" He asked as Mandy's face was berried in his chest.   
  
"Yes I have. What brings you back now of all times?"   
  
"Didn't I ask that one earlier?" Zaltana said trying to lighten the mood.  
  
"Mandy remember when we were kids and I told you about the Atrox and how I was one of the Children of the Sun?"  
  
"Yeah but what does that have to do with anything?" She asked as they all once again sat down on the leather couch.   
  
"Its Zaltana's turn to fight. She's a Child of the Sun. I need to take her to Kedem." A saddened look washed over Mandy's face. "I know you don't want her to but she has to fight." 


	7. Chapter 7: No Turning Back

Chapter 7: No Turning Back  
  
Zaltana didn't know if she wanted to stay at the house or go with her father to Kedem. "Dad, why don't you stay the night? I'm going to be seeing him tomorrow; you can just take me there tomorrow. I can cut school tomorrow its not like I will be missing all that much." She asked.  
  
"I don't want to bring the danger here. They know me, if I'm right they don't know you yet. I would just bring them to you." Zaltana couldn't tell her father that she was already in danger and that Stanton already knew of her. Zaltana looked at her mother for support.  
  
"Luke, one night wont hurt." She finally said. "Zal, your not cutting school. Kedem can wait. You know how long it's been since we last saw him."  
  
"Last time I saw him was when Zoë turned 17. The daughters always did have to choice earlier then we did."  
  
"Wait, who's Zoë? What do you mean choice?" Zaltana wasn't sure what was going on with her family or today. Since today's been pretty messed up as it was with her father coming back, being told to take up arms yet alone being asked to join two different sides in some kind of battle Zaltana didn't know what she was going to do next.  
  
"Zoë? She's your godmother. She was a Daughter of the Moon. A great one at that. The two of you have similar powers." Luke explained. "Kedem hasn't told you yet. When a Child of the Sun turns 18, they are forced to make a choice. One option is to forget everything that they had experienced and lose their powers and live out the rest of their days as a normal kid. The other option is to become this protector or something. The way Kedem explained it, you would become a Guardian of Earth, but he doesn't know if that's what happens. That's what scared us."  
  
"Wait if you had to make one of those choices, to be a sprit or to forget, how do you remember this?"  
  
"We had you." Mandy said.  
  
"Kedem couldn't let us forget what was happening because of your birth. You were born three days before I turned 18. I was planning on becoming that sprit thing, but I couldn't leave you. We didn't want to put you up for adoption; we didn't want to leave you on some crazy lady's front steps. And we weren't going to send you down stream in a basket."  
  
"Is that why you left? Because of me?" Zaltana bit her lip hopping it wasn't true.  
  
"Kind of. But it was agents my will. Kedem told me that I would have to leave so I could keep you safe. I stayed longer then I should have."  
  
"Stop it. Just stop it. This isn't what I need to hear. Everything your telling me is making me reconsider not going with Stanton earlier today at the lake." She walked over to the door and grabbed her bag. "I really need to go for a nice long run. I'll be back in time to grab my school bag in the morning. Anyway you two might need to check up. That is if moms the same as she was when you left." Zaltana opened the door and started to run faster then she normally would have. She normally would have made sure her feet didn't smack agents the pavement but tonight she didn't care. She just wanted to get out of there. She ran at least a mile before she realized that no one was following her. Her father might have been telling the truth about some old evil was coming after her and her friends but she didn't really know who to trust. She started to slow down her pace when she heard sounds of a fight going on in the park down the street. She started to head over there when Stanton came out of the shadows and surprised her.  
  
"Lovely child, your back out here alone. No one to save you, no lake for you to escape." His hand stroked her face.  
  
"Leave me alone Stanton. I don't have time for you." She tried to push past him when his hand found its way to her shoulder. "What do you want from me? Why is this all happening tonight of all nights!"  
  
"What I want from you is to join up with the Atrox. Why is it happening tonight of all nights, look out into the sky what do you see?"  
  
"A bunch of low flying aircrafts, a few UFOs, some spot lights from the clubs and a few stars. Oh look there's the Space Station." She said looking at the sky.  
  
"But you don't see the moon do you?"  
  
"You got me their Fabio. It's the night of the new moon. And what does this have to do with me?"  
  
"You teenagers today need to know what everything has to do with me. Its always me, me, me, me. Never looking at the big picture." Zaltana looked at her sun charm and it was glowing a slight golden color.  
  
"You want to know what I see in the big picture?" Zaltana said while a smile crept across her face.  
  
"This should be good."  
  
"Death to the Atrox. What ever it is will crumble at my finger tips."  
  
"Stay away from her." Zaltana heard from behind her. She turned to see five girls standing there.  
  
"Are you guys the Daughters of the Moon or something?" Zaltana asked.  
  
"Hey Chica how do you know of us?" one of them asked. She had two teardrops tattooed under her eye along with the whole 'I can kick your ass' look to her.  
  
"I'll take that as a yes. I guess Maggie hasn't told you that your getting more Allies in the fun little holy war." 


	8. Chapter 8: Like a Rolling Stone

Chapter 8: Like a Rolling Stone  
  
Stanton looked around him to see the nine teenagers standing around him, six girls, three guys. "You still want to fight us Stanton? You've got the Children of the Sun to watch out for, along with the Daughters of the Moon." Zaltana started to lift him off the ground. Her feet were planted firmly on the ground while they left skids. She felt his mind pushing into her own. Her amulet was glowing bright green.  
  
"You don't honestly think that lifting me into the air will be able to get rid of me. Do you?" He floated in midair for a few minuets. Before a yellow light with a fire twist hit him dead on.  
  
"Not alone." She dropped him to the soft grass. He landed with a hard thud. She tried to drop him in the puddle left on the ground from this morning's rainfall but he landed square on his butt. She staggered backwards as she tried to push him from his mind. She soon felt hands helping her back to a sturdy stance.  
  
"That's not all we can do Stanton. And you know it." One of the daughters spoke.  
  
"Serena you wouldn't." He spoke the words were almost cursed as they came off his tongue  
  
"Just try us." It started to rain.  
  
"I don't have time for this." He melted into the shadows as if the rain caused him to melt.  
  
"Thank you for showing up." Zaltana didn't know who she was talking to. She didn't direct it at the Daughters of the Moon or the Children of the Sun.  
  
"No problem. I'm Catty." The one with some paint above her eye said. "This is Vanessa, Jimena, Serena and Tianna."  
  
"I'm Zaltana, and these are the guys. Duncan, Rowen and Cyrus." Zaltana explained. Each of the guys nodded to their names. She looked up to the sky and felt the rain running over her face.  
  
"How did you know about the Daughters of the Moon?" Jimena asked. She seemed to be eyeing each of the Children.  
  
"We're the Children of the Sun. We fight for Helios." Rowen said. "I'm guessing Maggie didn't tell you guys that you're getting more allies fighting the Atrox."  
  
"Maggie just said to stop by after school for tea. Nothing about new allies." Tianna remembered.  
  
"Don't worry about it. It's starting to rain pretty damn hard, lets head inside or to a coffee place." Cyrus said. Cyrus' surfer hair cut was plastered to the sides of his face. Zaltana started to laugh. "Zal, what are you laughing at?"  
  
"You look like Godzilla when you leave her out in the rain!" Zaltana joked.  
  
"Who's Godzilla?" Vanessa asked. It's a good question considering Godzilla normally is a big Dragon thing that likes destroying Japan and New York City.  
  
"Godzilla's my dog." Cyrus explained.  
  
"Now tell them the rest of your pets." Zal coxed.  
  
"The dogs are Godzilla and Lady. The cats are Rover, Roger and Rex. The birds Fluffy and Coyote, and there are too many fish to name."  
  
"Yeah but one of their names are Canary, and another's named Hector. Where the heck you get those names?" Vanessa's care free smile turned saddened when Zaltana said the fish's names.  
  
"Come on, lets go get that coffee." Catty said changing the subject. They all agreed and walked over to Starbucks. The group of them talked as they drunk their coffee and dried off. After they finished and decided that they should head back home for the night, Duncan offered to give them all rides home in the Band Van. It was a beaten up old black church van with tinted windows. One of its former owners had stuck numerous band stickers and painted band logos on the sides. The van was called 'Band Mobile' 'Music Bus' not to mention 'Damn tin can that drinks gas.' The Daughters kindly declined and jumped into Jimena's brother's car. And the Children hopped into the damn tin can that drinks gas.  
  
"Hey Cyrus, can I spend the night at your place?" Zaltana asked finally.  
  
"You know you don't have to ask. Anyway, you and your mom fighting again?" Cyrus asked moving some of Zaltana's damp hair off her face.  
  
"More like my dad, mom and me are fighting. Oh Rowen he was a Child who remembers it all."  
  
"How is that one possible?" Duncan asked looking at Zaltana in the rear view mirror.  
  
"Apparently because I was born before my dad turned 18, he was able to keep his memory. But because he kept it, he remembered everything and then left mom and me." She explained.  
  
"What's he like?" Cyrus asked.  
  
"A good lock pick. Besides that I'm not really sure. Mom came home before I could really talk to him." They pulled up to Cyrus's house. "Thanks for the ride Duncan."  
  
"Next time I might have to charge you gas money." He laughed. "Don't mention it, I'll see you at school tomorrow." Cyrus and Zaltana got out and headed up the walk.  
  
"Thanks again Cy. Did I leave any clothing over here from my last times sneaking out?" Zaltana asked as they reached the door.  
  
"Zals, you fit into my cloths, even if you didn't leave any over here you can borrow some of mine. Anyway, I think some of my cloths look better on you." Cyrus said opening the door. The two got ready for bed like any normal teenagers would. Zaltana slept in the guest room and Cyrus slept on his futon. 


	9. Chapter 9: There Aren’t enough Love Song

Chapter 9: There Aren't enough Love Songs In The Sky  
  
Before it was time for Zaltana and Cyrus to leave for school, Zaltana said her good byes to Cyrus and his mom and walked back to her house a block away to grab her school bag. Her father was on the couch when she walked in. He wasn't asleep but he wasn't quite awake. She walked over to the couch and sat down next to him. "I'm sorry you had to come back at this point. Why couldn't you stay around long enough to teach me to throw a base ball?" she asked him before standing up to leave for the coal   
  
"Zaltana," he said in his half asleep daze. Zaltana started to leave but stopped at the door.  
  
"I wish it didn't have to be like this." She said walking out the door. Today was a day that she just didn't want to go to class. She grabbed her cell phone out of her bag and pressed memory 3 - Cyrus. She waited for his voice mail to pick up before she said anything.  
  
"Hey Cy, its Zal, I'm ditching school today. I've got some stuff to figure out. Meet me at Pink's for Lunch at noon. Bring Rowen and Duncan. I figure we can ditch the rest of the day together. I have my Cell if you need to call me." She said as she started to walk down to the bus stop. She figured she would do some window shopping or chill in Hollywood for a while. "I'll call you around 11:45. Oh be at Pinks at noon. I'll give you a 15 minuet leeway. But don't press it." She hung up her cell phone to get a text message from Cyrus:  
  
Zal, did we have USH hw?  
  
She just send back a quick no before sitting down at the bus stop. She threw her cell phone into her bag only to hear the ring tone Time After Time (Cindy Lauper melody of course) go off. "Damn it Cy, can't you not call." She dug around to find it and she pulled it out. "Hey Cy."  
  
"Zal, so your ditching today?" Cyrus asked over the phone.  
  
"Yeah, I'll meet you for lunch at Pinks with the new guys." She said as a bus pulled up to the stop. She looked at where it was heading: Hollywood. "This is my bus."  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"Don't worry about it. I'll meet you and the guys for lunch." She got on the bus and paid the fair and took a seat near the middle of the bus.  
  
"Zal Where are you going?"  
  
"Don't worry about it. Cy just go to class. I'll be fine." She hung up the cell phone and turned off the volume. She had a second thought and hoped off at the school exit. She needed to drop her backpack off in her locker. She passed the security guards and let them go through her bag before she went off to her locker to drop off her bag in her locker. She kept walking towards the gym. She kept her face down to blend in with the hopeful teen idols and the wanna-bes and the punkers and everyone else in the school. She wishes she could become invisible but that didn't work. She turned a corner and bumped into Vanessa. "Sorry." She didn't look up to see who it was.   
  
"Hey Zaltana. Where you heading?" She said. Zaltana turned to see Vanessa.  
  
"Oh hey Vanessa. What's up?" She said as she started to tie her hair up in a messy bun.  
  
"I haven't seen you around this part of school in the morning before. Are you trying to sneak out or something?" Vanessa asked  
  
Zaltana looked down at her self. "Am I that transparent?" She forced a laugh. "Yeah, I was planning on heading to Hollywood to do some window shopping, but I grabbed my backpack this morning along with my hand bag."  
  
"The way you were walking gave it away."  
  
"You want to come with me?" Vanessa shook her head no. "Was it you or Catty who could disappear into thin air?"  
  
"Its me."  
  
"You want to give me a hand getting out of here? Just get me on the other side of the bushes and you'll be back in time for first period."  
  
"I shouldn't."  
  
"You sure you don't want to come to Hollywood with me? Who knows we might just get a walk on role in a movie. You know like be in the back round of a final cut."  
  
"No go. My moms a fashion designer. She'll know when the shots were taken. I'll see you later, I don't really want to be late."  
  
"Vanessa what time is practice today?"  
  
"4:30 to 6. Be ready, I've got some new drills for us."  
  
"Ok." Zaltana watched Vanessa walk off to class before running across the fields to get off school property. Once she was off campus she set out for the Hollywood shops. She arrived in Hollywood around 8:30. "I've got the whole day just to chill and hang out and figure out what the hell I'm going to do about everything." She thought walking into a CD store. Nothing could be better for her, she was cutting school to go to Hollywood and she would get that new CD she's been thinking about getting. She didn't really have anything to do, so she went and saw a random chick flick. Then she hopped a bus to get Pinks to meet the guys.  
  
On the bus her Sun Amulet started glowing. She looked around trying to figure out who was making it glow but everyone looked normal. She slid the amulet under her shirt so she wouldn't draw attention to herself. She was a teenager out on a bus with a glowing amulet on a school day, she really didn't want to draw anymore attention to her self. She arrived at Pinks right as the guys got there, they had brought the Daughters with them.   
  
"Hey guys." Zaltana cheerfully stated. She was relaxed and care free.   
  
"Hey Zal, how was your shopping?" Vanessa asked as they walked grabbed a seat.  
  
"Ladies, were buying today. Its on the guys." Rowen smiled.  
  
"Rowen, you sure you want to buy for the six of us? We could eat you out off any cash you had." Serena asked.  
  
"He's the one buying, who cares?" Tianna said.   
  
"Yeah Serena I'm sure. Now what do you dolls want." They each told Rowen what they wanted. "Ow, I knew I shouldn't have been so nice." He joked. Cyrus and Duncan followed Rowen up to the counter to order.  
  
"Hey any of you want to come hang out with me for the rest of the day, or at least till we have to head over to Kedem and Maggie's?" Zaltana asked.   
  
"I can't I've got some classes I can't miss." Vanessa said.  
  
"Sure I'll come." Tianna said. "You sure you don't want to come Vanessa? Hang out at some vintage shops?"  
  
"I'm sure." She said. "you guys really should go to class."  
  
"Come on Vanessa, let them have their fun." Catty said playfully punching Vanessa's arm.   
  
"How bout you two?" Zaltana asked Serena and Jimena.  
  
"Next time chica." Jimena said.  
  
"I'll hold you to that." She said as Cyrus, Duncan and Rowen came back with the food.  
  
"What ever she's holding you too, I'm sorry." Cyrus said to Jimena. The group of them talked as they ate their lunch. It was a perfect lunch break.   
  
"So tonight are you guys going to be at Planet Bang? Cause Michael Saratoga and the band and I are playing tonight." Vanessa asked  
  
"Don't you guys play every night?" Cyrus asked. He threw his hot dog holder in the trash.   
  
"Not every night." She looked at her watch. "Come on, we've better get back to school." Tianna and Zaltana said bye to the group of them as their friends walked off back to school.  
  
"So where do you wanna head first." Tianna asked as she practically shoveled her Freedom Fries (French Fires) into her mouth.  
  
"Hummm. There was this classy shop that I saw earlier. It should be fun to check out. You just need a friend or two to go into that shop."  
  
"What kind of shop is it?"   
  
"It's a vintage shop." Zaltana started explaining the shop. It was a little vintage 70's shop, which had records and all this fun stuff in it. 


	10. Chapter 10: One Last Chance

Chapter 10: One Last Chance  
  
Zaltana and Tianna walked into Kedem's apartment to see Kedem and Maggie sitting on a love seat with a faded pattern. While the boys sat on one couch while the girls sat across from them. Zaltana saw her father sitting in an armchair facing Kedem and Maggie. "Sorry were late." Tianna smiled as she sat down next to Catty. Zaltana slowly walked over to the couch and sat down next to Duncan.  
  
"Its ok girls." Kedem said as Maggie started pouring some tea. "Now that were finally all here. We might as well tell you guys the truth."  
  
"What do you mean?" Catty said looking at Maggie for an answer.  
  
"When Selene wasn't the only goddess to give up her children for the good of humanity. As you guys have figured out, Helios had given up his children too. So you sit here now as the Children of the Sun and the Daughters of the Moon. Daughters where your powers are weak the Children's power is stronger. Jupiter himself even gave up three of his youngest son's to help the fight." Maggie explained as she handed Zaltana her tea.  
  
"I don't under stand. What do you mean?" Zaltana asked.  
  
"I believe your father told you about this last night. You are a Child of the Sun; you have your powers to fight agents the Atrox. You have until the age of 18 to fight with your team. Then you will have to make a choice of what you will do. Will you keep living in our dark world remembering nothing, living as if you were just a normal teenager? Or will you choice to ascend?"  
  
"This is too weird." Zaltana said. "If you remember nothing or ascend, how do you remember you were a Child, Luke?" It did not feel right calling Luke dad, he left her and her mother.   
  
"Zaltana, if you look at his Sun Amulet you will see that it is partially blackened." A shot of fear shot across his face.   
  
"You turned didn't you." Zaltana was on the verge of freaking out at her father. Duncan grabbed her head and let her squeeze it. "You left mom and me so you would lead them away?"  
  
"Zal, its not how you think." Her father pleaded.   
  
"My own father."  
  
"My mom turned too." Catty to Zaltana. "Its not that bad."  
  
"Zal, listen to me. I came back now to warn you. Something is brewing in the deep workings of the Atrox. Kedem, Maggie, you need to call up Brandy and Chi to get the rest of them. Brandy's in New York, I've warned her of what's coming and Chi, I don't know where he is."  
  
"What's going on?" Kedem leaned forward to listen better.  
  
"Things have been quite down there. Like it was when they attacked and I stayed back to protect Mandy and you."   
  
"Are you sure its quite."  
  
"Yes I am. Things are getting very weird down there. There is talk that the secret scroll was found and the Daughters have it. If you have it, use it. Defeat the Atrox while everyone things its just a rumor."  
  
"How do we know that you're just trying to get us to do something stupid and kill us?" Tianna shot at him.  
  
"If your daughter was in trouble would you try to kill her?" Luke asked Tianna.  
  
"If I was an evil Atrox member, maybe." Tianna was a very saucy girl. She hated the Atrox more then anyone else in that room. The Atrox had tried to kill her and killed her family. They chaise her down until the day she completed what she was destined to do. She was not born a Daughter of the Moon but Selene took pity on her and took her in.  
  
"I will never do anything to hurt my daughter." He stood up. "Kedem, Maggie it's been great to see you again. Zal, I'm sorry I've been a shitty father." He walked out of the room.   
  
"Should we believe him?" Vanessa asked.  
  
"I will try to find Chi later tonight. He will know what goes on." Maggie said looking out the window. "You should go after him Child."  
  
"I'll be back in a bit." She grabbed her bag and ran out side looking for her father. She stood out on the stoop looking out to the street. "Dad, where'd you go now?" She turned to get back in side to see Stanton standing there. "What do you want?"  
  
"Just waiting for my girl, nothing to do with you. But I did talk to Luke quickly." Stanton's hair was sling over his left eye. He was standing with one-foot agents the wall behind him.  
  
"Where did he go?" She did not know why she wanted to find him but something was calling for a father she never really knew.   
  
"Away. Said something about trying to help but only get pushed away." Zal's phone went off in her bag.  
  
"Hang on Fabio." She pulled it out and saw it was her mom. "Mom have you seen Dad?"  
  
"I about to ask you that. What's going on?"  
  
"I don't know Mom, if you see dad, tell him to stay with you. I need to talk to him. I have to go. I do not know when I will be home. Don't wait up." She hung up and turned her phone off. She looked up at where Stanton was to see nothing. "I wish I knew what to do." She sat down on the stoop and placed her head in her hands.   
  
"Zal, I'm sorry things are happening like this. I really am." She looked up to see Luke standing over her.  
  
"Dad, what do I do?"  
  
"Zal, I know you don't want to do this, but I want you to fight with the boys and the Daughters and kill the Atrox. It might kill me in the process. I will try not to fight you or your friends. I'm sure you know this." Her father tried to reinsure her.  
  
"Dad why did you come back now, of all times."  
  
"I knew you needed the truth." 


	11. Chapter 11: Forces of Love

Chapter 11: Forces of Love  
  
Zaltana stood up and faced her father. "If I live through this, I want you to know that I hate you so much for leaving me and mom. I hate you because you never thought me how to throw a baseball or anything. I hate you for becoming one of them. I hate you for coming back now, not on one of that night when I cried myself to sleep. I hate you so much I can't even hate you!" She was half crying and half frustrated.  
  
"Zalie, I left you because I didn't want to bring the danger to you." His eyes pleaded with her.  
  
"Dad I've heard this before. I do not give a crap about it. Maybe I would be less screwed up if I had a father at home that didn't run out on my mom and turning her into some turbo slut, who brought home guy after guy. Some of which weren't even human like." She crossed her arms shivering at the memories of some of the guys her mother brought home. "You should have stayed to make sure I was safe and help me train these god forsaken powers. Help me make sure everything was okay. You ran away!"  
  
"I screwed up Zal, is that what you want me to say? Should I say how I thought it was going to be better to leave to keep you out of danger! Is that what you want?" They were on the verge of screaming at each other.  
  
"I want my father back." Zaltana turned her back on her father so he would not see her start to cry.   
  
"Zal," He started to say.  
  
"I should go back inside." She ran inside leaving her father standing on the steps. Luke ran after her only to run into a locked door.   
  
"You look like your having a good night." A soothing voice said from behind Luke said. He turned to see Stanton standing there behind him.  
  
"What would you care, you don't have kids." Luke melted into the shadows and left. Stanton soon did the same thing, although he waited for Serena. Inside they were discussing what they should do. Zaltana walked in and sat down next to Duncan.  
  
"Where's Luke?" Kedem asked.  
  
"I don't know we were just fighting. What I miss?" She tried to change the subject.  
  
"We are going to try to find the others. There are two other sets of you children." Kedem said before he poured himself some more tea.  
  
"Which ones?"  
  
"I was rascally about to tell the rest of you guys this. The Sons of Jupiter are in New York City with Celia. We have gotten in touch with her, and she will be expecting us. However, Greer is not as easy to find. Greer is the guardian of the Outer Four Sisters." Kedem explained.  
  
"Who are the Outer Four Sisters?" Catty asked.  
  
"I'm getting to that… you youngens can't wait for anything."   
  
"Oh no he missed a nap didn't he?" Rowen joked.  
  
"Shut up you." He threw a tea basket at Rowen. "Anyway the Outer Four Sisters are the oldest daughter from each of those planets. They went agents their parents will to help with the Earthlings. You all have had run in with the Atrox," He paused. "What your about to come in contact will scare the living day lights out of you."  
  
"What do you mean?" Duncan asked.  
  
"Kali." Maggie said. "She is making a come back. She's been quite for almost 59 years. The Atrox is even scared of her. She has the power to drain dreams, hope, fears and life force out of a person with a single kiss." Zaltana's face went pail thinking about how evil Kali could be to steal the human essentials with just a kiss.   
  
"If you think that's bad, she's gotten powerful enough that if her victim even thinks of kissing one of her hence men, it still counts as that kiss and their essence is hers." Kedem explained. "Children, I am taking you to New York and we are going to find the other teams. There is no way in hell that you are going to be able to fight Kali on your own."  
  
"When we find these guys, What are we going to say, 'Hi I'm Rowen Stevens and this is Zaltana Phoenix, Duncan…' wait Duncan, what's your last name?"  
  
"Meyer." Duncan was back on his one word answers.   
  
"Ok. You're an Irish boy. We've gotten a Scottish guy, Irish guy, German guy and Zal what are you?" Cyrus asked.  
  
"Native American and Russian."  
  
"Oh yeah were kicking more ass and we can get drunk and do it too." Zaltana threw a pillow at Cyrus. They laughed.  
  
"Why are we staying here and not going with the Children?" Vanessa asked.   
  
"Valid question." Kedem sank into his seat. "You all have families that wouldn't understand what was going on and why you were going off to New York with some old man and Lady."  
  
"Your mother for instance is really protective. She wants to know where you all at all times. Jimena your grandmother wouldn't understand what was going on. Catty your mom would say just go for it. Tianna I'm not quite sure about your family. Serena I'm not quite sure about your family either." Maggie explained.  
  
"Duncan and Rowen's parents already trust me enough to bring them here. Cyrus's mom will remember me if she saw me. And Zaltana's mom married a former Child of the Sun and knows all of this stuff." Kedem explained.  
  
"What do you mean my mom will remember was she a Child of the Sun too?" Cyrus asked totally confused.  
  
"No, she was a Daughter, one of Maggie's finer ones. She was a good Daughter. She could think on her feet. Saved my knuckle heads a few times."   
  
"Oh crap he's going down Memory Lane again!" Rowen joked.  
  
"When do we set out to find these other kids?" Zaltana asked. She needed to get away for a while. And she needed out now.  
  
"As soon as you two can." Kedem told them.   
  
"Lets go get our stuff." Zaltana said.  
  
"Zal we can't rush into this. They could be sending us on some sort of death mission. And all you want to do is go in head first?" Cyrus stood up in front of Zaltana.   
  
"Cy, they could also be sending us to save the world. From people that want to steal kisses and hope." Zaltana shot back standing up.  
  
"Zal, are you going to go running in head first to every problem you face? Do you ever think?" They looked as if they were about to kill each other.  
  
  
  
"Cy, you've known me how long? Do I ever think before I act? I act on instinct, unlike you who thinks it through, down to every possible out come and you miss life." Zaltana had been saving that up for a good fight, this classified as a good fight.  
  
"At least I haven't been arrested, suspended, sent to three different middle schools in 2 years as well as spending winter brake in Juvi!" Cyrus screamed back at her.   
  
"Which one do you thinks gonna send the first blow?" Tianna asked watching the fight.  
  
"Should we stop them?" Catty asked as she watched things start to heat up between the two best friends.   
  
"Let them fight. If you stop them their feelings are only going to get bottled inside. They will have to fight it out one day to get out all the tension between them. If they stop now it will cloud their judgment later on when they need a clear mind." Duncan explained.  
  
"How do you know that you just met them yesterday?" Tianna asked. She had gotten an Ice Tea some where along the line and was now drinking it.  
  
"Their like me and Rowen. We've been friends for a while and we fight each other like that every now and again." Duncan explained.  
  
"Cyrus I don't care if you're an old Bustard, but your too reserved and you never live, you never have fun with out worrying about what will happen to you if your mother found out." Zaltana finally spoke after a screaming match.  
  
"Oh, I'm the Bustard? Your parents were never even Married! I'm friends with a Bustard. Maybe I want to make my mom proud and go off to a good school."  
  
"The only way you would be doing that is if you choices to forget everything when your 18. What will you choices?" Zaltana asked him. She had her left hand on the chair and her right hand in a fist at her side ready to dance with Cyrus.   
  
"I don't know I haven't thought about it yet. I still have a year or so to decide. What are you going to do when your asked to decide your fate?"  
  
"I will ascend. Its got to be better watching and helping out, then staying here."  
  
"Zal, what's gotten into you lately? You've been acting so weird. Besides your mom's slut problem and taking care of the twins what's been bugging you?"  
  
"My dad's one of the guys I've got to fight. I don't know what Stanton wants with me. I just want to be that kid that never fit in and trips people with soccer balls." Zaltana fell back to the couch in defeat.   
  
"Its okay Zal, you've got us to watch your back and fight with you. Your not going to be fighting alone." Duncan rapped his arm around her.   
  
"Yeah, we can even help you in History… Math is another story, but we can help you out in History Class." Rowen said rapping his arm around her from the other side.  
  
"You want to know why were staying with you?" Cyrus asked kneeling down in front of Zal. She shrugged looking at Cyrus, her best friend since they were kids. "Your our friend." He paused and looked her in the eye. A smirk ran across his face as he grabbed a pillow. "Not to mention our sister!" The all started dog piling Zaltana while some how she ended up on top. They were all laughing.  
  
"You guys ready to kick Kali's goddess ass!" Rowen cheered. They laughed.   
  
"Before I send you out." Maggie said. "Finish your tea." She pointed to Duncan and Rowen's cups which were half empty. "I want you to be careful. That goes for you two Kedem. You guys are going to New York City, to find these four boys. And you are also going to Arizona to find the Outer Four Sisters. They are harder to find since One of them lives in Phoenix, and the rest live on different reservations. Good luck you guys."  
  
"Thank you Maggie." Zal said she was still laughing from when the guys tried killing her. 


	12. Chapter 12: Blame it on the Sun

Chapter 12: Blame it on the Sun  
  
Rowen and Duncan finished their tea and headed off to Cyrus and Zaltana's house to get some of their stuff. Zaltana and Cyrus walked into Cyrus's house to see his mom and dad sitting on the couch watching TV. "Mom, Dad, I'm going on a road trip with Zal and some of the guys. I'll be back later." He said walking up stairs and grabbing his stuff. When he came down stairs, his parents were standing at the door with his jacket and a brown paper bag. "What's this?"  
  
"Cyrus, Zaltana, you two is going off to do something like what we did when we were kids. Only I think it was much safer when we did it." His father told them. "We want you to be careful. Don't do anything dangerous, send us some post cards."   
  
"And don't pick up any strange girls Cyrus. And Zaltana, don't pick up any strange guys." Cyrus' mom told them.  
  
"Alright mom and dad. We'll be careful." Cyrus said taking his jacket.  
  
"Where are you guys going?" His mother asked them handing Zaltana the brown paper bag.  
  
"To New York City. We need to find some friends." Zaltana smiled.   
  
"We're also stopping in Arizona." Cyrus added.  
  
"Good luck you two. Don't do anything stupid." His father told them. The two teenagers looked at Cyrus' parents with the 'we always do stupid stuff' look on their faces. "Or at least things you don't normally do." His father added.  
  
"Bye Mom and Dad. I love you." Cyrus hugged his parent's good-bye and walked out the door to the van where Rowen and Duncan were waiting. "Zal, what did they put in the bag?" Zal opened it in the car. The smell of fresh baked cookies filled the car.  
  
"You mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies." She passed one to each of the guys. Duncan drove over to Zaltana's house. The light was on in the living room. She exhaled before leaving the car. She walked into the house to see her parents making out on the couch. "Good Yee God, do you have to do that in here!" She proclaimed before she ran up stairs to grab her stuff. She threw some cloths into a duffle bag. She saw the locket her father gave her sitting on her dresser and put it on. "Here goes nothing." She walked out of the safety of her room and down stairs to see her parents waiting for her.   
  
"Where do you think your going missy?" her mother asked.  
  
"New York." She answered.  
  
"Oh no your not! You have school tomorrow."  
  
"So?"   
  
"Why are you going to New York?" Her mother screamed.  
  
"To save the world."  
  
"Like I haven't heard that one before." She glared at Luke.  
  
"Sorry Mom I have to do this. I have to find these kids." Zaltana pleaded with her mom.  
  
"She has to do this. Just like I had to." Luke said to her mother helping Zaltana's case.  
  
"If you walk out that door, don't even think about coming back." Her mother fumed.  
  
"If I walk out this door." She put her hand on it. "I can't come back."  
  
"Right." Zaltana walked into the kitchen and left through the back door. She walked around the house and claimed into the van. She threw her bag into the trunk.   
  
"Drive." She said lying down in the back seat.   
  
"Your mom didn't like the idea of you saving the world did she?" Cyrus said leaning over the back of the middle seat.   
  
"Not at all. She said if I walked out the front door I couldn't come back." Zaltana whipped a tear from her eye.   
  
"So you walked out the back door. You can still come back. If not you can live at my house for ever." He laughed, "Not like it will make a difference. Mom thinks you live there already." Zal let out a slight laugh and found a blanket under the middle seat.   
  
"You guys drive yet?" Duncan asked.  
  
"Yeah we got them a few weeks ago. How bout you Rowen." Cyrus said.   
  
"I'm on permit." He said leaning back into his seat.  
  
"Do we have to get Kedem?" Zaltana asked.  
  
"Yeah. That's where were going first. Then we'll figure things out from there." They drove in silence until Rowen put a Something Corporate CD in. Zaltana fell asleep in the back seat.   
  
"Cyrus, what can you tell us about you and Zal? What do you guys do for fun?" Rowen asked making innocent conversation.  
  
"Normal stuff I guess. We hang out, go to Planet Bang. Most the time, Zal gets us in trouble somehow. Normal stuff. How bout you guys?"   
  
"Listen to music, we started a band at one point. You play anything?"  
  
"I used to play the bass. You?"  
  
"I was on Drums and Duncan was on Guitar. We had no singer."  
  
"Zal's pretty good at singing, maybe you can talk her into being your singer."  
  
"Want to be our bassist?"  
  
"Sure. Got nothing better to do." Cyrus sunk back into his seat.  
  
"Now we need a name." Duncan said.  
  
"Why not Children of the Sun. That's who we are?" Cyrus asked. It made sense for them to be who they are.   
  
"People might figure it out." Duncan said keeping his eyes on the road.  
  
"But this would only work if we all made the same choice of sticking around after were 18. Are you guys going to stick around?" Zaltana asked. She had been listening to the whole conversation. The group got quite. "You guys didn't think of that did you?" She saw Duncan and Rowen shake their heads while Cyrus just looked down. "Come on lets go get Kedem so we can get our fight over with and we can get back to high school."  
  
Duncan pulled in front of an old building to see Kedem walk out and open the door to the Van. "Never thought I'd be traveling cross country in one of these tin cans again." He laughed. "So what's with the long faces?"  
  
"Zal just busted our bubbles. We were planning to make a band. But sunshine back there had to tell us that it would only last until we were 18 unless we choice to stay around and she knows what she wants." Rowen explained.  
  
"You guys could still be in a band together, you just would have to replace each other when they leave." Kedem said so carefree.   
  
"Where are we going first?" Zal asked getting in a better position in the back seat. 


	13. Chapter 13: If You Want To Spin

Chapter 13: If you want to Spin  
  
Zaltana kept looking to the stars while Duncan drove on through the night. Kedem had fallen asleep as they drove through Nevada and was snoring loudly. Cyrus had zoned out while listening to his CD player. Rowen was having an ADD attack and trying to name all the stars. "Hey Rowen you can see the stars better back here why don't we switch places."  
  
"Duncan can you pull over so we don't wake those two." Duncan pulled over on the side of the road. Zaltana climbed out to feel the sand under her flip-flops.  
  
"The sands so cool. You'd think it would hold all the heat from the late spring sun." Zaltana looked up at the clear sky.   
  
"Come on Zal, we've got a long trip a head of us." She heard Duncan say. Rowen closed the sliding door and Zaltana climbed into the front seat.   
  
"Thanks Rowen." She turned to him to see him nod. Duncan started the car again and they headed out. "Duncan," she paused.  
  
"What?" He looked over to her quickly.  
  
"What state are we in?" She asked trying to hid that she was really going to ask him.   
  
"Were in Utah, were around Mexican Hat on 163. We should be in Arizona by day brake." He glanced over at her. "Are you okay? You don't seem like your self."  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a bit tired." She lied.  
  
"Why don't you get some shut eye?" He said. "There should be some blankets in the trunk. I could get one for you, if you want."  
  
"No, I'm fine. I can't sleep in moving cars." She told him. They drove in silence for a while. Until Duncan started asking her questions.  
  
"How'd you handle growing up so different at times it could be scary?" He asked Zaltana.   
  
"I guess I just dealt with it. I could hid my powers. So that made it a bit easier for me. I still got picked on cause of the fact, I had no figure, I was a tooth pick. I also had braces," She let out a slight laugh before looking over at Duncan. He was driving with a smile across his face. "What's so funny?"  
  
"I'm trying to picture you with no figure and braces. I also see you with really bad hair." He laughed.  
  
"Shut up you. How 'bout you? How'd you fit in?"  
  
"After I burned the school down, I was taken out of the school system and my mom started to teach me at home. I was a home school rocker." He joked.   
  
"You're a lot better then Rowen made you out to be." Zaltana relaxed into the van chair.   
  
"The two of us are almost like you and Cyrus. We're the best of friends. But the two of us try killing each other a lot. I tend to be the Silent Bob out of us two." Duncan kept his eyes on the road. "So what was that thing between you and Cyrus earlier about?"  
  
"I don't know. I guess we just had to get that pent up emotions out." Zaltana kept watching the side of the road. She was silently counting the dotted yellow lines. The sky turned red for a second as a loud explosion could be heard in the distance. "Duncan, what was that?"  
  
"Zaltana, that's what we country folks call a good old fashion explosion."   
  
"I see the country folk live in big cities on the East Coast now. There is no middle America." Zaltana said watching the explosions aftermath leave smoke in the distance.  
  
"Duncan you can't drive, how many times have I told you don't blow things up while driving!" Kedem said waking up to see the explosion.   
  
"Hot cloud." Cyrus said as his eyes caught a glimpse of the mushroom cloud.  
  
"Dude." Was what Rowen decided to add to the conversation after a long pause.   
  
"Duncan what are you waiting for there could be people who are in trouble over there. They need our help! Step on it!" Zaltana commanded.  
  
"Hold on tight." Duncan managed to get from 55 mph to 85 mph in three seconds flat.   
  
"Where'd you learn to drive, Jersey?" Cyrus asked after he managed to pull himself from the back of his seat.   
  
"Yes." Duncan told the truth. The tone in his voice was a mocking of being ashamed of it but he was still laughing.   
  
"That explains everything." Zaltana said. They pulled up to the gas station to see two figures running out of the fire. Zaltana jumped out of the car and was followed by the rest of the Children of the Sun. "Rowen, move the fire away from them so they don't get burned. They have something around their neck so I think their on our side."   
  
"Got it boss." Rowen planted his feet firmly in the desert sand and started concentrating. It seemed the girls were running through a tunnel of fire. They weren't being touched. As they ran closer to them Zaltana ran to meet them.   
  
"Are you two okay?" She screamed as she ran towards them. One of the girls had blond hair with very fair skin and was a little shorter then Zaltana. While the other girl had very dark tan skin and red hair. The two girls were about the same height.   
  
"Our friends are still in there!" the red head said.   
  
"Okay wait out here. Duncan, Rowen, go in there and look for their friends. Cyrus, get me some blankets out of the trunk and grab two water bottles out of the cooler." Duncan and Rowen nodded to Zaltana before they ran inside the burning building. Cyrus went into the cooler and threw two water bottles at Zaltana. She caught one and dropped the other. Zaltana handed the water bottle she caught to the red head before bending down and picking up the other one and wiping the sand off it.  
  
"Your sending your friends on a suicide mission!" the blond haired girl protested as she took the water bottle from Zaltana. "Our friends can handle them selves."  
  
"Look, were here to help you before we find the girls we need to find. One of them has the power to keep fire away from people. He can manipulate it. The other can do something with fire. I think he might be able to put it out. Let us help." Zaltana explained as she put a blanket over the two. "I'm Zaltana, the guy in the van is our mentor Kedem. And the guy I kept with me is Cyrus."  
  
"I'm Maddie Connley and this is my sister Moxie." The blond hair girl said. She didn't take her eyes off the blaze. She was waiting for her friends to come out alive. Zaltana eyed over their outfits; Moxie was wearing ripped blue jeans and a black tang top with the fret board of a guitar on it with a drum set in the back round. The instruments were done in different color glitters. Maddie was wearing blue jeans which were ripped with some blood stains around the ripped knees. Her shirt was a green tang top that was a bit scorched from the fire.  
  
"I've got a shirt you guys could change into. So you guys don't have to hang out in the scorched ones." Zaltana smiled at them.  
  
"Thank you." Maddie said to Zaltana.  
  
"Why are you being so nice to us? You just met us!" Moxie asked her red hair was frizzing out.  
  
"Because you guys just escaped from a burning building and I'm not quite sure how. Cyrus" Zaltana explained.  
  
"Yeah Zal?"  
  
"Pass me two shirts our of one of our bags, I want to get these two cleaned up a bit by the time Rowen and Duncan get back here." Cyrus nodded and went into the back of the van. He threw two shirts at Zaltana one landing on Moxie's head and the other landing in Maddie's lap.   
  
"Sorry my aim sucks!" Cyrus said. The girls laughed at him.   
  
"Kedem Cyrus, I'm going to take them behind the van to change, so don't look kay?" the guys nodded as Zaltana lead them behind the van. The two girls changed into their new shirts. Cyrus threw two white shirts at them.  
  
"Maddie that cut looks gross!" Moxie exclaimed.  
  
"I know. Zaltana, do you know how to clean this up?" Maddie asked Zaltana who was keeping her eyes over to the building waiting for her friends to get out of there.  
  
"Yeah I can, You guys done changing? I'm sure Kedem needs to talk to you." Zaltana said.   
  
"Okay we're ready." The three walked around the van. To see Kedem sitting on the side and Cyrus slumped over the middle seat. Zaltana grabbed her water bottle and the first aid kit.   
  
"Okay Maddie, take a seat and I'll take care of your cut." Maddie hopped up onto the front seat and rolled up her pants leg. "That thing looks nasty!"   
  
"Yeah it does." Moxie agreed with Zaltana on the nastiness of Maddie's cut.   
  
"Now I have to ask you some stuff." Kedem said. Maddie and Moxie turned to look at him. "Judging by the necklaces you two wear, you two are two of the Outer Four Sisters." 


	14. Chapter 14: Into the Fire We Go

Chapter 14: Into the Fire We Go  
  
"Who are you guys?" As she spoke, Moxie jumped back as a look of surprise washed over her face; she had not expected to be found out so soon. Unbeknownst to herself, however, her accidental leap of surprised caused a rather unexpected carom between her nose and the crystal amulet that hung around her neck. Now that the amulet was in leer sight of it's onlookers, one could clearly see the zodiac symbols for the outer four planets, carved adeptly into the side of the crystal. The symbol of Uranus was facing outward, authenticating that this was indeed the symbol that Moxie had.  
  
"Moxie calm down, Helios sent us to help. We're the Children of the Sun." Cyrus explained. "We were sent to find you guys." Maddie looked into the blaze to see some figures coming out of it. Cyrus followed her glance to see the figures. "Zal, come on."  
  
"Right. Kedem finish cleaning up her cut!" Zaltana ran over to help the guys bring everyone else out of the blaze.   
  
"What am I your slave, Kedem clean this, Kedem do that. Pass the tea. Gee." Kedem mumbled while he started cleaning up the gash on Maddie's knee.   
  
As Zaltana ran closer, she could see that Duncan had a girl with Dark brown hair, which was tied back in a braid draped over his back. She could also see that there was a girl with short umber hair with red highlights in it running along with Duncan and Rowen. On Rowen's back there seemed to be an old lady on his back. "Come on guys."   
  
Zaltana saw the building over them was giving way. She raised her hands over her head to focus her power to hold up the ceilings until they were out from under it. Moxie and Maddie met them half way to help with their team members. The sisters took the old woman from Rowen who went and helped the girl with short hair. Once everyone cleared the building, she let her force down and they watched the building cave in on its self.   
  
"Greer!" Kedem said running over to the old woman.   
  
"Kedem, so you're still alive?" She said between coughs. Zaltana grabbed water bottles for each of them and handed it to them. The Children of the Sun helped clean each other, the Outer Four Daughters, and their mentor up.   
  
"So who are you guys?" the girl with short hair asked Zaltana as she was grabbing her a new shirt.   
  
"I'm Zaltana. The guy who carried your friend with a braid out is Duncan; the guy who carried Greer out is Rowen. The other one is Cyrus. Our old guy is Kedem." She said. "He tends to be a bit cranky when we don't get him his tea." Zaltana added in a whisper.  
  
The girl started laughing. "Greer's like that too!" After she stopped laughing, she told Zaltana her name. "I'm Isis Chione. You already met the twins, Moxie and Maddie. And the girl flirting with Duncan is Kineta Nalani." Zaltana quickly looked over to Duncan to see Kineta was indeed trying to flirt with him as he was cleaning up a cut on her arm.  
  
"He's not interested." Zaltana breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
"How can you tell?" Isis asked looking over at the two of them.  
  
"He's hardly talking to her. Not to mention he looks kind of annoyed."   
  
"Its so nice of you to be lending us your cloths." Isis said tying the top of one of Zaltana's halter-tops.  
  
"Don't mention it, the twins are wearing Cyrus's shirts and Kineta is wearing one of Rowens. You're the only one in my cloths." Zaltana laughed as she started getting some bandages ready for Isis.   
  
Isis laughed at how Zaltana could give out clothing that wasn't even hers. "You're kidding?" Zaltana shook her head no.   
  
"You've got this nasty cut on your back. This stuff I'm going to be cleaning it with is going to sting and feel cold at the same time." Zaltana explained. Using a random washcloth that was in the car Zaltana started to clean the gash. "It looks pretty deep, but its stopped bleeding."  
  
"God that stuff stings like fuck!" Isis bit her tong. By the time they were all bandaged up, the girls looked like they were just in some sort of battle with Duncan and Rowen who had their fair share of scratches. Greer had just finished explaining to her girls about how the Helios and Jupiter sent their children to help fight the Atrox. Kedem chimed in with how now they weren't fighting the Atrox but they were fighting a goddess named Kali. "So were no longer fighting those freak things but were fighting kissing soul stealers?"  
  
Kedem nodded. "Odd, Zaltana had that same reaction. Were going to be driving together until we get up to a car rental place or somewhere where one of my hellions can hot wire a car for us."  
  
"Kedem you let your Children get away with doing such unlawful things!" Greer questioned.  
  
"You got a better idea?" Kedem growled. All the teenager stepped back in a wordless agreement of things were about to get ugly. Rowen motioned them to all get in the van. They nodded and climbed in.   
  
"Hey Duncan, you want me to drive, you were driving all night." Duncan handed Zaltana the keys.   
  
"Keep her under 80." Zaltana smiled and climbed in the driver seat. Duncan kicked Rowen out of the front seat and took it himself. Zaltana hit the horn. "You guys coming?" Duncan screamed out the window.   
  
The two old people climbed into the car and sat in the middle seat. "Thank God this is an old Church bus!" Someone said before their voice faded into everyone else talking.   
  
"Everybody shut up!" Kedem screamed. All the teenagers stopped talking. "Zaltana drive towards Phoenix. There should be a car rental place there. We'll just get another Van."  
  
"Once we find the boys of Jupiter…"   
  
"Sons of Jupiter."  
  
"My bad, are they driving back to Cali with us?" She asked turning onto Arizona State High Way. Kedem and Greer were in the first two seater in the church van while Cyrus and Rowen sat behind them. The twins sat in front of Isis and Kineta who shared the back row.   
  
"Afraid so." Greer said.   
  
"There's no way we're going to get anywhere!" Isis said from the back row.  
  
"There's no way we're going find a music station we all can deal with." Maddie said.  
  
"How bout this, for music who eva riding shotgun or driving get to choice." Duncan said. "Oh that's not a suggestion. That's one of the rules to my car." 


	15. Chapter 15: Lose Ends

Chapter 15: Lose Ends  
  
Duncan pulled up his CD case from underneath the front passenger's seat. He flipped through a few pages pulling out a CD and showing it to Zaltana. "What do you think?" He held out the Something Corporate CD "Ready… Brake." Zaltana smile and nodded giving the signal to play it.   
  
"Zaltana, turn off at the next exit." Moxie said from the second to last row of seats.  
  
"Why?" Zaltana glanced back through the rear view mirror at Moxie and Maddie.   
  
"Maddie and I want to get some of our cloths and see if mom will let us take the van with us." Moxie explained.  
  
"If I got this far, driving in my car, and then I started holding on to these I couldn't keep." Was heard from the speakers in the car. Andrew of Something Corporate's voice was heard through the car before Duncan turned off the CD. He quickly put in a Smashing Pumpkin CD. Zaltana vetoed the CD as quickly as it was put in. This continued for about five minuets when Duncan put Something Corporate back in.   
  
Following Moxie's request, Zaltana turned off the highway. "Okay guys you have to tell me where to go." She pulled off to the side of the road. "Duncan switch seats with one of the twins."   
  
"Got cha." He opened the door and left the front seat. He opened the sliding door. "Which one of you two can get us from here to your house without getting us lost?" He asked the two twins.  
  
"Maddie's better with directions. She'll get us there faster." Moxie said with all honesty.   
  
"Maddie up front." Duncan commanded. Maddie made her way to the front of the car and hopped out. "Rowen, move back with Moxie."  
  
"Why do I have to move?" Rowen protested.  
  
"Because its my car. And if you don't want to walk you should move next to Moxie." Duncan glared at Rowen.  
  
"Fine, I'm moving." He unbuckled his safety belt and moved to the seat where Maddie was sitting. "Ya happy, ya big oaf?" Duncan climbed in and slammed the door. Before he took his seat, he made a point of messing up Rowen's hair. Which was not hard because Rowen looked like he just woke up but Duncan made sure it looked worse.  
  
"Yeah, I am." Duncan took his seat and buckled up. "Okay Zalie baby lets head out!" Zaltana nodded and started driving. She turned up the stereo during the song "If I die." Maddie pointed out where to turn and everything. They pulled into a small neighborhood where there the houses were the cut out of the same mold. The twins lived in your standard two story tall house with a white picket fence that needed painting. There was a tired old dog lying under the tree when Duncan's Van pulled up.   
  
"This the place?" Zaltana asked looking over the house.   
  
"Yeah this is the little hell hole we like to call home." Maddie said climbing out of the car. Zaltana followed her lead. Soon the rest of the group followed the lead of the two girls riding shot gun. Maddie and Moxie lead everyone up to the house. "Okay if mom and dad are home, watch out for flying dishes."   
  
"Should we ask?" Rowen said eyeing the dog like it was about to attack at any given moment.   
  
"Their about to divorce." Moxie sigh. "Constantine won't hurt you. She's about 91 dog years or something." She walked over to the dog and scratched it behind its ears. "You're a good little old doggy aren't cha girl?" Constantine gave a halfhearted bark. Moxie lifted the welcome matt and pulled out a key. She unlocked the door and walked in. "Come on in."   
  
The group of them walked into the house to see that the living room had pink flower wall paper falling off the walls in spots and the hardwood floor was in need of being polished and cleaned. There was a cute rug where you could easily see where two children sat pretending they were on a magic carpet. The couches had duck tape over spots and were well faded. The wood tables needed dusting and there were coffee rings on the tables next to the chairs. There was a glass coffee table placed over the throw rug, old newspapers and Teen People, People and Time magazines were thrown un-ceremonially over the table. The curtains wouldn't fully closed so they let just a little light into the room which let the light bounced the glass table. The light bounced onto the walls to show that the baby pictures that hung on the walls were slightly tilted and smutty. Everything was covered with a fine layer of dust.   
  
"There isn't much here." Maddie said pulling everyone's attention away from the room. "Come on. I'll bring you over to the TV room." Maddie walked down a hallway and lead them to a room which was quite the opposite of the first room. There was a beautiful throw rug in the middle of the freshly polished wood floor. Against one wall there as a leather corner sofa. Instead of the corner sofa being against two walls it was against one while the second side of it flared out into the room making the room seem smaller and cozeyer. There were two sliding glass doors which lead to a patio set on the back deck. The walls were painted in an off white cream color while along the top a hand painted flower ring lined the room. There was a computer off to the side of the couch where it was out of the way and wouldn't block anyone's view of the TV. The television was housed in a beautiful oak TV case with a bookshelf off to the left side and a DVD and VHS holder on its right.  
  
"Why is this room much nicer and stuff then the other one?" Rowen asked.   
  
Duncan's fist met quickly with Rowen's stomach "Don't be rude." Rowen fell onto the end of the sofa holding his stomach.   
  
"Sorry." Rowen breathlessly stated.  
  
"Duncan, its alright. It really is. That room is left like that because that where grandma died and we haven't the heart to change it." Maddie said. "I'll wait here with them while you grab your stuff. That way if dad gets home he won't freak."   
  
"Got is sis." Moxie ran up stairs where you could hear her ever move. Her steps echoed through the house. After a few minuets there was another set of feet moving up stairs.   
  
"Oh no that's dad." Maddie ran over to the back door and opened it quickly. "Duncan, Cyrus, Kedem and Rowen go out the back door and get to the van quickly. Dad will freak if he sees you four here. Hide on the side of the house!" Without another word the guys made a dash for it. Greer followed too. "Greer what are you doing?"  
  
"Your father will think I'm with Child Services if he sees me. I'm going with the guys. I'll meet you back in the car." With that she left and closed the door behind her.   
  
"Zaltana, dad doesn't know you so he's going to question you and everything. So bear with it. You're a friend of Isis from the reservation. Are you even Native America?" Maddie was starting to panic.  
  
"Maddie calm down. Go help your sister we'll wait for you in here." Isis put her hands on Maddie's shoulders. "We'll be fine." Maddie nodded and her foot steps could be heard as she ran down the hall.   
  
"Are you sure we shouldn't help her?" Kineta asked watching where her friend ran.   
  
"Its her family, we shouldn't intervene." Isis said. The three girls had their eyes set on the way Maddie ran. The sound of someone falling to the floor radiated from the hallway.   
  
"Zal, lets go." Kineta was half way to the hallway when she said that.   
  
"Right." Zaltana was right behind her as she ran to help the twins. Zaltana and Kineta stopped in stun silences when they saw that Moxie was on the floor holding her arm close to her while Maddie was being lifted off the ground by the front of her shirt. "STOP!" Zaltana focused her powers to pry Maddie out of her fathers hands. Maddie was now free floating away from her father who was now floating a few feat off the ground.   
  
"Zal, put me down!" Maddie cried from mid air. Zaltana slowly lowered Maddie onto the stairs.  
  
"Maddie get your stuff, we're out of here!" Kineta said running over to Moxie and grabbing her bag off the stairs. "Isis! Get in here I need some help!" Isis ran to see Maddie running up the stairs, the twins father floating in mid air and Moxie nursing a broken arm.  
  
"Oh my god!" She said before she ran to help Moxie.   
  
"Who the fuck do you little whores think you are?" the floating man questioned.  
  
"We are the protectors of sisters and friends alike. We're the Outer Four Daughters teamed up with the Daughter of the Sun and we don't like how you treat your daughters." Kineta said draping Moxie's bag over her shoulder. Isis had gotten Moxie to her feet. "Get her out to Greer." Isis nodded and left with Moxie. Maddie ran down the stairs.  
  
"I can't hold him much longer!" Zaltana stressed. The twin's father was starting to shake in the grasp of Zaltana's mental grasp.  
  
"Right." The sunlight that was seeping through the window in the living room started forming a ball in Kineta's hand. The ball grew to about the size of a soft ball. "Batter's up." Kineta said before she threw the light ball at the floating mass. He flew back into the wall. "Lets go Zal."  
  
"Yeah. Sure." Zaltana looked at the twin's father life less body. The two ran out the front door into the car. The teams had left the front passengers seat open for Zaltana and the seat behind Greer open for Kineta. Once the two had closed the doors Duncan speeded off.   
  
"We're bringing her to the hospital. Zal, we need your health insurance card. The twins don't have cards." One of the guys said.  
  
"Right. Find it." She grabbed her wallet and threw it behind her. "I'm wiped." 


	16. Chapter 16: Sleeping Beauty

Chapter 16: Sleeping Beauty  
  
When Zaltana woke up later that night Rowen was driving. She looked around to see that Moxie had a soft cast on her arm while Maddie had a bandage on her face. Every one in the car was either asleep or looking out the window. Greer was a sleep on Kedem's shoulder who was leaning on Greer. "Are they alright?" Zaltana asked Rowen.  
  
"Yeah the wonder twins back there are fine. Her arms only badly sprained. Nothing big. We lied and said that they had a fight and fell down stairs." Rowen explained. "You did good with that."   
  
"What state are we in?" She didn't even look up to see if there were any signs.  
  
"Were just finishing up Texas. We've got fifty or so more miles. Head back to bed." Rowen said. He didn't take his eyes off the road.  
  
"Night again." Zaltana said before she drifted off till morning. When she woke up again Cyrus was driving. "Hey Cyrus. Where are we?"  
  
"Can't tell ya." He kept his eyes on the road. It was around ten or so in the morning.  
  
"What do you mean you can't tell me where we are?" Zaltana sat up and looked at her friend. A smile ran across Cyrus' face. "What's so funny?"  
  
"We crossed into Oklahoma about an hour ago." Cyrus grabbed the random pair of sunglasses that was sitting on the dash board and put them on.  
  
"That is not funny." Zaltana slipped back into the chair. "Find the next rest stop soon." Sooner or later Cyrus found a rest stop on the highway. The girls went into the bathroom talking while the guys just went in to use the bathroom.   
  
"So Zaltana, is there anything between you and Duncan?" Kineta asked as she went to apply some make up.  
  
"Kineta its none of our business if there's anything between them." Isis took the spot next to Kineta on the mirror.   
  
"Isis, its okay, we're just friends." Zaltana said pulling some face wash out of her bag. She set it on the counter and turned the water on.   
  
"You seem close with all three of them." Kineta started to pry.  
  
"Cyrus has been my best friend since the days of rec. soccer. And Rowen and Duncan are just guys on my team." Zaltana's face was covered in suds from the face wash.   
  
"But he's such a hottie how can you not want to be with him?" Kineta asked leaning into Zaltana.  
  
"Yeah he's a hottie but I don't want to date someone who's my celestial brother. Cause that would be kind of weird don't cha think?" She started splashing her face with cold water.  
  
"It might be a little weird but hey, ya never know what could happen."   
  
"Shut it Kineta." Moxie said. "You just wish that Duncan would call you baby don't you."   
  
"He doesn't call me baby!" Zaltana protested. She used one of the paper towels to dry off her face.  
  
"Is it just me or are we about to brake out into song?" Maddie asked. "A song that has bad 80's music in it none the less." The girls laugh.  
  
"When you started driving the other day, Duncan called you baby." Moxie informed Zaltana.  
  
"Really?" This was news to her. Zaltana didn't really think of Duncan more then a guys that her mom would hate. But then again her mother hated all her friends that wasn't Cyrus. How could you hate Cyrus, he was such an idiot at times he didn't know what a Bra was until the end of Freshmen year of High School when he was going through Zaltana's draw looking for any of his stuff.   
  
"Yeah, he digs you." Kineta hopped up on the ledge in front of the mirror next to Zaltana. "You should put some make up on, you wouldn't look half bad with some gold eye shadow."   
  
"I'll pass. I don't even wear lip gloss to school. I'm a chap stick kind of girl." Zaltana explained as she used some chap stick. "And were not going to break out into some campy 80's musical, we only do that in Math class." The girls laughed.   
  
"Zal, how does your hair look down?" Maddie asked pulling out Zaltana's tie dyed ponytail holder. Her hair fell right above her elbows. Zaltana quickly ran a brush through her hair making it look neater.   
  
"You are so keeping your hair down!" Isis said taking the brush through her own hair. They all put their hair down and brushed it out. The twins had waves in their hair while the rest of the girls hair was shaft straight. Zaltana had quickly changed into a tang top and jeans while  
  
The girls finished up in the bathroom and then walked out to meet the guys. Cyrus was lying in a bench while Duncan and Rowen were looking at a map. Kedem and Greer were trying to use the pay phones to get in touch with Maggie. Zaltana lead the girls right over to Duncan and Rowen. Zaltana was in the middle with Kineta to her right and Isis to her left. They were a foot or so to the side and back. While each Moxie was slightly behind Isis and Maddie was slightly behind Kineta. Rowen looked up to see this and hit Duncan in the chest and motioned to look up ward.   
  
"Oh my god." They mouthed.  
  
"So where are we going next?" Zaltana asked looking over the map.   
  
Duncan looked down at the map and blushed. "Were going to get up to Ohio hopefully by night fall."   
  
"Sounds good."  
  
"Hey Zal question." Cyrus asked looking over at Zaltana and the Outer Four Daughters. Zaltana turned her head to look at her best friend. "When did you get Hot?!" The teenagers started laughing   
  
"Somewhere between us splitting up and now." She joked. "So who's driving?"  
  
"I'll drive!" Kineta said looking over at the map.  
  
"Sorry doll face. Don't know how you drive. Your not driving my baby." Duncan said taking a pencil and marking where they were going. "Rowen your driving. I have to plot out this map. Kineta, ride shotty."   
  
"That's BS!" Kineta protested.  
  
Duncan looked up at her. "Look, if you want to drive, fine. You're not driving my car. I let my team drive and that's it."  
  
Moxie thought quickly. "So who's the leader of your team? Since it seems that both Duncan and Zal seem to lead it."  
  
"I don't think we have a leader." Rowen said looking up from the map.   
  
"Come on children lets get going. We need to get to New York City by tomorrow night fall." Greer said walking over to them. They all walked out into the parking lot. Duncan tossed Rowen the keys and Kineta climbed in front. Duncan climbed into the back row of the Van.  
  
"Hey stranger, can I sit with you?" Zaltana asked as she climbed back there.  
  
"Sure." He through a pillow that was sitting back there into the trunk. Cyrus and Isis moved into the row in front of the two of them. The twins were in front of them. While Kedem and Greer were sitting behind Rowen and Kineta who were driving and riding shot gun. 


	17. Chapter 17: Got Plans?

Chapter 17: Got Plans?  
  
There was an unsteady silence through out the Van as they drove closer to their destination. "Rowen turns off the music." Zaltana said over the rhythm tic beat of Train.  
  
"What's wrong?" Rowen asked turning the music off.  
  
"Think about it guys. Were about to go fight Kali head on and none of us have a plan! What are we going to do? Bum Rush her?" Zaltana brought up the question they have all been dreading. "How did they have her back down last time?"  
  
"Zaltana, your father asked the same questions." Kedem said looking down shaking his head.  
  
"Kedem, who was her father?" Greer asked looking a bit left out.  
  
"Do you remember Luke?" Kedem looked up at Greer.  
  
"The really cocky leader with a kid?"  
  
"Yeah Greer, the cocky leader. Zaltana's the kid."  
  
"Do you guys mind not talking 'bout my dad as if he was some son of a bitch!" Zaltana raged.  
  
"He proclaimed himself as the S. O. B. of the group. They also had Little Bastard, Pimp Daddy and The Bitch. They just insulted each other all the time. Worked together great but insulted each other all the time." Kedem was shaking his head. "Worked too if it wasn't for the fact your father almost got them killed so many times."  
  
"I don't care about what my father did. I want to know how are we going to beat Kali!"   
  
"Kedem we should tell them the truth." Greer placed her hand on Kedem's hand as she spoke.   
  
"I suppose so." Kedem signed.  
  
"Tell us what?" This time it was Duncan.   
  
"Every time someone goes against Kali they die." Kedem paused and the van got quite. "The two of us have seen teams of smart teenagers like yourselves run into battle coming out with only one or two coming out alive. Because of that, they made the decision to forget. Your father, choice to go to switch sides completely."  
  
"I wish we didn't have to send you in to battle like this but it has to be this way." Greer picked up where Kedem left off.  
  
"How did you send them in?" Isis asked.  
  
"It always starts the same way." Greer looked down.  
  
"One of the Boys takes it upon themselves to find out as much as they can. They make a plan and everyone agreed on it."   
  
"Then they challenge Kali herself in a one on one. Not telling their team where there going or what they are going to do. Their plan always fails."  
  
"Okay, they fail when they go off to fight Kali alone. Lets do this right, get the Son's of Jupiter then call the Daughters of the Moon to meet us somewhere. Then we will make a final plan. Agreed?" Zaltana was taking charge of the Children of the Sun and the Outer Four Daughters. Duncan shot her a look saying she was crazy.  
  
"Deal." Moxie said after a long silence.  
  
"I'm in." Maddie chimed after her sister. Slowly each one of them agreed. Kineta was the last one of the Outer Four Daughters to agree. The Children of the Sun agreed much quicker.  
  
"Okay Zal we all agree your plan is crazy," Cyrus smirked. "But is it crazy enough?"  
  
"We're just going to have to find out now aren't we?"  
  
~.~.~.~  
  
Hey guys, I'm running out of ideas on what to make happen to these guys. Sure tension is always fun but you can't have that for a whole story. If you have ANY IDEA's I can use Please email them to me, IM them to me or even put them in the Review. I'm also having issues with Kali's drowns. I could use some Ideas for them. Maybe I'll have something to do with Zaltana's Daddy! I just gave myself an Idea! Oh I could also use chapter names I don't think my song and TV ads are cutting it anymore.  
  
Thanks to those who I've been driving crazy with my story issues. So give YamiMarita and Imhotep Ardeth Bey and those people I randomly IMed to tell me how this sounds a hand! They need one after putting up with me!   
  
Keep Reviewing. 


	18. Chapter 18: Tonight Tonight

Chapter 18: Tonight Tonight  
  
"Kedem, it's going to end different this time. I can feel it." Greer said to Kedem.  
  
"I feel it too." Kedem agreed I with his dear old friend. The twins went back to talking to each other in their normal giddiness. Rowen turned the music on and they kept driving. Moxie and Maddie talked between themselves while Duncan, Zaltana, Cyrus and Isis got to know each other better.   
  
"Cyrus did you really fall head first out of a tree hitting a roof and landing in a bush?" Isis asked after Cyrus told a story.  
  
"Cyrus, you forgot one detail." Zaltana smirked. Cyrus shot her the warning look, "you dented the car too." Duncan laughed slightly while Isis showed her girl laugh. "How bout you Duncan, what did stupid stuff did you do as a kid?"   
  
"Well, Zal, I'll tell you this, I maintain that Pay phone was always in my closet." The three shot Duncan weird looks. "When I was 13, some of the local boys decided to make a Secret Order of the Pumpkin, it was Halloween time, that should say something just on that. So on Mischief Night we all went out and looted different objects. We put three objects that would be hard to steel into a hat and pulled one out. Mine was the Pay Phone at the school. I got all the way home with it too."  
  
"Okay Cy, pay up. Told you that you could have gotten away with it." Zaltana joked.  
  
"I'll pay up when you pay me for all that candy." He shot back.   
  
"Now calm down you two I want a clean fight. No hitting below the belt and no bitch fighting! Cyrus, don't go for the boobs." Duncan said moving into the middle acting as if he was some cheesy referee from an old boxing match. They all started laughing.   
  
The next morning they arrived in New Jersey. "Were not taking Pennsylvania on the way back!" Moxie proclaimed as they got out and stretched at the 'Welcome to New Jersey' rest station. "Nine hours for one damn state. That was pointless"  
  
"But Moxie think of all the Cows that Duncan tried killing. Him and Zaltana almost had us a barbeque! Not to mention that Rowen kept egging Duncan on to throw fire blasts at the poor cows." Kineta's voice was dripping with sarcasm.   
  
"Rowen I just want to know why we couldn't go through the Virginias." Zaltana put her hand on Cyrus's shoulder as she pulled her foot up to the back of her leg.   
  
"We were too far south west?" Rowen shrugged. Maddie and Moxie walked over to Cyrus holding a flyer.   
  
"Check out what was on the bulleting board. Stop saying things as I say it! Cyrus make her stop!" The twins said in unison. Isis and Kineta laughed slightly as Duncan and Zaltana held their laughter in.   
  
"So what's this thing say?" Cyrus took the paper from Moxie and read it over. "Were looking for the Son's of Jupiter right?"  
  
"What is it Cy?" Zal asked taking it from his hands and read it over. "Looks like were going to a Battle tonight."  
  
"What do you mean a Battle?" Isis asked while she stepped forward.  
  
"There's a battle of bands tonight. One of the head lining bands is called Sons of Jupiter. That's a bit to out there of a name to come up with unless you know something." Zaltana explained.  
  
"Can someone say Dumb Luck?" Kineta smirked.   
  
"Damn it Cyrus! Did you have to bring your damn dumb luck with you?! Come on I thought I told you to leave it home!" Zaltana joked making fun of Kineta in the process.  
  
Cyrus shook his head. "Zal you know how many times it's saved our asses!" Zaltana and Cyrus started laughing at each other.   
  
Kineta just stared at Cyrus and Zaltana, "You two are freaks!"  
  
Zaltana turned to Kineta. "We know we're freaks, but we're also best friends. I guess that makes up for it. Duncan I feel like driving. Can I get the keys?"   
  
Duncan shook his head. "Were in New Jersey, Rowen's home town. Sorry baby doll."   
  
"Don't make me shoot you." Zaltana shot back at him.  
  
"You wouldn't know how."   
  
"Actually her uncle took her to the shooting range when she was 13. He trained her in shooting firearms." Cyrus glanced over at Duncan and Zaltana. Duncan's eyes opened wide at the comment. Zaltana just smirked remembering how pathetic she was at shooting. She only hit the target a few times. Even if she did try shooting Duncan, she would miss a few times and then hit his foot.   
  
"Fine I won't call you 'Baby Doll' again. Just don't shoot me." Duncan pleaded.  
  
"So where's the battle tonight?" Rowen said trying to change the subject.  
  
"Its in Princeton somewhere." Cyrus said. He looked up to see a girl running at them with two guys chasing after her. "Guys look." The all looked up." As the girl got closer they saw she was kind of short, thin and had brown hair. As she passed Rowen, Duncan reached out and grabbed her.   
  
"LET ME GO!" She screamed. Rowen helped Duncan hold her.   
  
"Why are they chasing you?" Duncan asked as he got slapped in the face by her whaling hands.   
  
"JUST LET ME GO AND THEY WON'T HURT YOU!!!" she continued to scream and squirm.   
  
Isis walked up to her and lifted her necklace. "You're the Daughter of Jupiter aren't you?" Isis asked calmly while letting go of her necklace.  
  
"How do you know about that?" The frightened girl asked.  
  
Duncan introduced his team first. "I'm Duncan and this is Rowen. That's Cyrus and Zaltana. We're the Children of the Sun. Helios' kids. And that's Kineta, Isis and the twins; Moxie and Maddie. Their the Outer Four Daughters." She stopped trying to get out of their grip.  
  
"I'm Orana Arc." She looked up to see the two men running closer to her. "Those two are after me." Her breaths were short and quick. "Please save me!"  
  
"On it." Zaltana said as she stepped in front of the group. Kineta and Isis stepped next to Zaltana. She nodded at the two of them. The two men ran closer and slowed down to a stop in front of the three girls. One of the men was dressed as a runner while the other was in a black business suit. "May I help you?" Zaltana asked calmly as a calm smile spread across her face.  
  
"We are hear to take Orana Marie Arc in to custody." The one in the suit said.  
  
"Under what charges?" Kineta chimed in; she was still standing strong to Zaltana and Isis' right.   
  
"She is wanted for vandalism." The one dressed as a runner coolie stated.  
  
"May I see the warrant?" Isis asked. They shot her a death glare. "If you are going to take my friend into custody, you are going to need a warrant because somewhere along the line they came up with the Law saying you need a warrant for that and entering a house."   
  
"We don't have time for this. Smyth, get the girl." The one in the black business suit commanded.   
  
Zaltana raised her hand. "I don't think so." An invisible wall was now standing between the girls and the two men. "Orana's staying with us." The sound of glass shattering broke through the air. Her hands flew up to her temples while Isis and Kineta's hands flew to their ears. "What did you do?"  
  
"Cute trick girl, but your not going to keep her. She has messed with forces she doesn't understand and neither do you!"  
  
"We understand more then you think we do." Isis stepped up to bat. "You've just messed with someone that you don't want to make enemies with."  
  
"Who's that? The Powder Puff Girls?" The one dressed as a runner asked.  
  
"Even worse." At this point Maddie and Moxie were now behind them while Cyrus and Rowan and Duncan held back to protect Orana. They call us the Daughters of the Outer Planets." The Daughters answered in unison.   
  
"And me and the guys back there, where the Children of the Sun. I take it your some of Kali's goons. You ready to take us on?" Zaltana just surprised her self with her brassiness.   
  
A ball of light started forming in the runner's hands. Kineta's hands were behind her back forming a light ball too. Zaltana glanced over at her and she smiled. "Cy, get ready to shine."   
  
"Got cha Zal." 


	19. Chapter 19: Summon My Tribe

Chapter 19: Give It Up  
  
Zaltana looked to the ground and spit in front of her feet. "In the spirit of my ancestors I spit on my fear and I'll summon my tribe." Zaltana looked around at her friends. "Daughters of the Outer Planets, and my brothers hear my call" She looked into the eyes of the man in the business suit, "it's time we fight like we were meant to."   
  
Duncan and Rowen left Orana with Cyrus and walked up behind Zaltana. "Hey Zal, you wanna start the fight or should we let them make the first move?"  
  
"Lets see, I never thought of us starting a fight." Duncan and Rowen looked at Zaltana as if she was joking. "Your move. Make it wisely." The man in the running suit threw the ball of light that he was controlling. "Kineta NOW!"   
  
"On it!" Kineta threw the Light ball hopping to hit the one that was flying at them.   
  
"Zal duck." Zaltana felt someone's body push her to the ground pretty hard. She closed her eyes on the way down and grabbed for anything she could get. When she opened her eyes she saw Rowen lying on top of her. "It would have taken your head off." Rowen moved off her and helped her up.   
  
"Thanks." Zaltana turned back to the two men. The one in the business suit was lying on the floor while the runner was checking for a pulse. "Run back to your Master and tell her that she won't win against us. For two reasons."  
  
"What?" the runner asked.  
  
"You're the one's messing with forces you don't understand, and," She smiled over at Cyrus.  
  
"We're too damn cocky for you to win." Cyrus added in from sitting with Orana. The team watched as the two disappeared into nothing but a slight puddle on the floor. "Orana, are you alright."  
  
"You guys we're amazing. Thank you." Orana said as Cyrus helped her up.  
  
Cyrus pulled the battle of bands flyer out of his pocket. "This band, is it the Sons of Jupiter?"  
  
"Yeah it is. We were board so we made a band." She looked at her watch. "I really have to get to the battle to help set up and sign in and stuff."  
  
"Do you need a ride?" Rowen asked.  
  
"I've got my car. But you guys can follow me if you want, meet the guys and hang out a bit while they tune up." She explained.  
  
"Why don't you take Zaltana and Kineta with you so if they attack you again you'll have back up." Zaltana and Kineta looked at Duncan with the death eye. Duncan shot back the cool guy glare.   
  
"Okay. You two wanna come?" Orana asked Zaltana and Kineta. Kineta shrugged at the same time Zaltana did. "I'll take that as a yes." She laughed. "Come on. Follow me to my house and I'll let you guys drop your stuff off in the basement and freshen up."  
  
"Thanks we've been on the road since yesterday."  
  
"Figured. Come on." 


	20. Chapter 20: Do you think you can Cope?

Chapter 20: Do you think you can Cope?  
  
Orana walked Zaltana and Kineta over to her car where a guy was lying on the hood of it. He was relaxed and care free, almost as if he was taking a nap on it. Orana ran over to him. "JASON!" she screamed.  
  
He turned his head and watched her run over to the car. As she got closer the boy slowly lifted himself up to a sitting position. Zaltana and Kineta started running to catch up with Orana. "Orana, find some friends?"  
  
"Some friends that saved my ass."  
  
"Can't you save your own ass now a days. God." The boy jumped off the car and stood about five inches taller then Orana.  
  
"Don't you have practice? The battles tonight!"  
  
"Not for another hour." The boy shrugged. "Anyway I wanted to fly." The two exchanged a high five. "So who are they?"  
  
"Right. This is Zaltana and Kineta. Their like us."  
  
"Oh." His voice lit up. "Their in a band?"  
  
"well... I don't know about that. Zaltana's one of the Children of the Sun that Brandy was talking about that one time. And Kineta is part of the Outer Four Sisters."  
  
He looked Kineta and Zaltana over and then asked them the ever famous question. "You guys like music? Cause were having a battle tonight. If you wanna come?" He offered.  
  
"Yeah. It'll be fun." The four loaded into Orana's car. Zaltana rested her head against the window behind the driver while Kineta started talking to Orana and Jason. Words blurred away and faded around Zaltana.  
  
"Zal." Kineta started shaking her as the car slowed into a parking space.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Its time to get up."  
  
"I'm not asleep."  
  
"Anymore."  
  
"Zaltana. Thank you for saving my ass back there." Orana said putting the car in park.  
  
"Don't worry bout it. Is there a place to crash before the battle of the bands tonight?"  
  
"Yeah you can crash in my room while we practice. Your teams could crash around the house and chill." Orana said pulling the keys from the ignition.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
The END  
  
~*~  
  
I've kinda lost my drive for this story so I might start it up with the next character eventually. Who should I do next.  
  
Duncan  
  
Cyrus  
  
Rowen  
  
Your vote will decide. 


End file.
